Eventide
by Koinaka
Summary: When Bella Swan moved back to live with her father, she had no idea that she was venturing on the journey of a lifetime. She's already tamed one wolf, will she be able to tame another, or will she find herself entwined with a much different type of monster? Twilight AU
1. Prologue

Hello everyone! I have been out of the fanfiction game for a few years now, thanks to working my way through graduate school. I am in the last year of my PhD right now, so I have a bit of free time to write.

I got the idea for this fanfiction by reading a ton of different imprint stories. I realized that most of them were New Moon AU's, and it made me wonder, what if Bella met a wolf and was imprinted on _before_ she ever met Edward Cullen? How would the tale we know play out? Would Bella still be fascinated with Edward? Would he be fascinated with her? How would a relationship with one of the wolves change the dynamic of the Twilight saga. With that in mind, _Eventide_ was born.

I did a significant amount of research on wolfdogs, but I am not a expert by any means. If you find any mistakes, please do let me know. Also, while I enjoy the movies, I absolutely hate the cast. Emily Browning is my preferred Bella. I'm up in the air about the others.

Disclaimer: Own nothing. I'm just playing in their sandbox. Don't own the book (rarely take from the movies, but may do so)

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Prologue

If Bella had to pinpoint when everything had started, the exact moment that put her on the pathway she was currently traveling, she would have to say that it all started with Fenrir.

It was the summer before her sixteenth birthday, and she was, once again, attempting to stave off what she considered her mother Renee's most harebrained idea to date.

"A wolf." The words, flat, hung in the air between them. She needn't have spoken at all as her mother had not even stopped for breath.

"—and really, Bella, they're just so majestic. I remember visiting that reservation, the one outside of Forks, once with your father. He took me on a hike in the woods—thought it'd be romantic, I suppose, but he hadn't counted on the poison oak. Bumps in the most uncomfortable places…—and I swear I saw one. Of course, I didn't think anything of it, _then_ , but now, well, who knows? I certainly think it's possible, don't you?"

Her mother paused then, her wide blue eyes studying Bella intently, and waited for a response. Bella blinked several times trying to process everything her mother had said.

"You want to adopt a wolf," she said instead.

This seemed to be all her mother needed to fly off into another spiel. "No, not a _wolf_ , Bella, a wolfdog—They're hybrids, you know? Not the same thing at all."

And that was the end of that conversation. Afterward, Bella did what she always did when her mother acquired a new interest—she researched. High content, mid content, low content, different pairings, different breeds, how to care for one, how to feed one, how to train one Bella learned all there was to know about wolfdogs. In the month following her mother's proclamation, Bella tried to become an expert all the while trying to dissuade her mother of actually following through.

This wasn't the first time her mother had delusions of grandeur in regards to her haphazard hobbies. Their house was almost a timeline of her mother's neglected interests, each one left to the dust as soon as her mind had settled on the next. But this time was different because her mother's interest was a living breathing being and not a set of skis, a pottery oven, or scuba gear.

Her mother was unflappable. Every time Bella tried to talk to her, to explain the intense training that would be needed with the animal, to talk about the sort of food the animal would eat, or to even get her mother to actually _choose_ a breeder, she would always say, "Whatever _you_ want, Bella. I know you'll choose the right thing."

Bella's protests that Renee was the one who wanted to adopt the animal in question went on deaf ears. What little explanation Bella had received had only served to confuse her.

"I had a dream," she finally admitted, one cool January morning—cool for Arizona, at any rate. "I saw you, Bella. I saw you beautiful and happy with a wolf by your side. It was _magical_."

Bella had been admittedly doubtful. She was a practical girl. Her mother always said she was born middle-aged and grew older every year. She supposed it was true, especially back then. Someone had to make sure the rent was paid, the groceries got bought, and the car got filled with gas after all. There wasn't much room in her daily world of school and home for the supernatural or magic.

In the end, the wolfdog breeder Bella had finally chosen was located on the nearby Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation. She was an old, stooped woman with a face that for some reason, reminded Bella of one of her father Charlie's friends, Billy Black. To this date, Bella was still not sure why she chose that particular breeder. The other breeders, in Arizona and across the US, certainly seemed more professional. They had websites with links full of information and photos of multiple liters over the past several years. None of them had seemed right. Instead, Bella had called the last one on the list of breeders, a phone number the only information she had. The old woman had refused to discuss anything with her over the phone, urging Bella to come visit instead.

When Bella arrived at the woman's small house, she had studied Bella's face intently for several minutes, her dark eyes seemingly looking through Bella's soul. Finally, she nodded, the look on her wizened face certain. "You'll do. Pups won't be born for a couple weeks yet. Isaac will call you."

Bella had not known what she was getting into. The first time she visited the puppies, they were just ten days old. It was way too early, she thought, even though it would be weeks before she took the puppy home, but Sarah, the old woman, hadn't thought so.

"These things take a while" was all she would say.

The first time she set eyes on Fenrir, she fell in love. He was a dark, scrappy little thing, with a dark coat, dark nose, dark blue eyes, and attitude to spare. The litter was all lumped in a dark pile with the exception of one puppy, the smallest by far, who was separated from the others. Sarah had watched from the doorway as Bella observed the pups. She made an aborted gesture to touch the solitary puppy, but pulled her hand back at the last minute. The puppy snuffled a time or two before making his way to the side of the container the litter was in where she stood. Before Bella had time to react, Sarah had picked up the puppy and handed it to her along with a bottle.

"His mother has rejected him," she explained. "Too small, I think. You'll have to come by every afternoon to feed him, so he gets to know you. I'll take care of the other feedings."

"But I haven't even picked him!" she protested weakly as she looked down at the puppy hungrily sucking milk from the bottle. An only child of only children, she'd never fed _anything_ with a bottle.

The old woman's dark gaze was unyielding. "He picked you. That's the way of it."

And maybe it was. That didn't mean it was easy, by any means.

By the time Fenrir was ready to come, Renee was no longer interested in him and had not been in some time. Maybe if Bella had gone with another breeder or a lower content puppy, Renee would have been more interested, but the time between July and April had caused her interest to wane. Still, she had never complained about the puppy's expenses. She'd hired a contractor to build a containment area for him in the backyard of their house, and she purchased the raw meat for him to eat from the butchers. Otherwise, she was very hand off, but Bella thought that was more because her budding relationship with Phil, a baseball player about a decade her junior. Whatever the reason, Bella had found herself the primary owner and caretaker of Fenrir, a seven-week-old wolfdog puppy who was way more wolf than dog.

From there it had been an uphill climb, with her sometimes dragging Fenrir, and Fenrir sometimes dragging her along./4./ He was as stubborn as she was, both refusing to give an inch, util slowly but surely, Bella tamed her wolf. She had never really been an animal person—she'd never had a pet as a child—but she found that she loved having Fenrir. He was high-maintenance and demanding, but she thought he was good for her. Before getting him, Bella had been rather passive. Not shy, per say, but quiet and weary of drawing attention to herself. With Fenrir, she had to be assertive, the alpha in their little pack, or he would walk all over her. He also was responsible for getting her out of her house. She was used to spending her days in school and her nights and weekends doing homework and taking care of her mother. After getting the puppy, she spent a lot of her time outside, taking Feni—her nickname for him—out on long walks around Phoenix or sometimes going out to visit Sarah.

She was so busy that she hadn't even noticed how serious her mother and Phil were until they announced their engagement a month after her seventeenth birthday. Within a month, they were married, and within another, Bella was boarding a plane heading to her father's house.

If Fenrir was where everything had started, then her move to Forks was where Bella took her first and biggest step on the journey.

"You don't have to go," her mother said once again when they were waiting for her to board her flight to Seattle after checking Fenrir in.

"I know, but I think I should. I have been thinking about Charlie a lot lately, Mom. I want to get to know him."

It wasn't quite a lie. She did want to get to know Charlie. She hadn't been the best daughter to him over the years. She barely spoke to him, and she hadn't seen him in over two years. Forks, Washington might not be her favorite place, but she knew that her going was right for both parents. Her mother could travel with Phil, like Bella knew she wanted to do, and she could get to know Charlie.

"If you're sure…" she trailed off before smiling. "Well, have you got everything you need for now? Phil's dropping your boxes off at the post office in the morning, so don't worry about that."

Bella gave her mom a hug. "I've got everything. Love you."

"Love you, too, sweetheart."

Bella slept during the flight from Phoenix to Seattle, but she was wide-awake—and anxious—all throughout the short flight from Seattle to Port Angeles. However, by the time she the plane was arriving in Port Angeles, Bella's anxieties were a distant memory.

This was her chance at a new start, and it would be a good thing, she hoped.


	2. Chapter One

I got the idea for this fanfiction by reading a ton of different imprint stories. I realized that most of them were New Moon AU's, and it made me wonder, what if Bella met a wolf and was imprinted on _before_ she ever met Edward Cullen? How would the tale we know play out? Would Bella still be fascinated with Edward? Would he be fascinated with her? How would a relationship with one of the wolves change the dynamic of the Twilight saga. With that in mind, _Eventide_ was born.

Thank you for the alerts and reviews, guys! I love them all.

Disclaimer: Own nothing. I'm just playing in their sandbox.

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Chapter One

Settling into life with Charlie was awkward to say the least. Like Bella, he was a man of few words, which Bella could appreciate, but he seemed to be so pleased to see her that he forced himself into stilted conversations during the few interactions they had had so far. She hoped that the awkwardness would lessen as time went on, but for now she had only been in Forks for a total of three days already, and he had been at work the majority of that time. Charlie was the Chief of Police for the city of Forks, and it was obvious that he was married to his work. He had apologized profusely, though, about leaving her alone so much, but Bella didn't mind. It was relaxing to not have to worry about her mother so much, and she found herself enjoying the slower paced life of Forks to her surprise. It wasn't as if she was alone. Fenrir followed her as she puttered around the house, unpacking her belongings and giving the house a much-needed deep clean, and they spent a lot of time wandering the trails through the forest behind her house.

Plus, once school began after the winter break in a matter of days, Bella would begin attending Forks High School something she was definitely not looking forward to. Thinking about school made her think about the surprise Charlie had for her when she first arrived at the house: he had bought her a car. It wasn't new by any stretch of the imagination. It was a huge red tank-like truck with a bulbous cab, which Bella was surprised to find that she loved. The inside of the truck was clean and smelled like tobacco, gasoline, and peppermint. It strangely reminded her of Sarah.

There was one thing that Bella was having difficulty with—the weather. She was used to the sunshine, to the dry heat of Arizona. It rained more in Forks than in any other city in America it seemed, and instead of the warm colors of Arizona, everything around Forks was green, too green—an alien planet.

On the fourth day, Bella woke up to a surprising sight: sunlight filtering through her bedroom window. A glance out the window told her that it appeared to be one of the rate clear days. Bella decided to take advantage of the weather. She had been thinking about visiting the beach in La Push since she arrived. She remembered loving it as a child, and she thought Fenrir would enjoy running along the shore. As if he could hear her thoughts, the wolfdog in question licked her fingers and wagged his tail. Her mind made up, she quickly pulled on some jeans and several layers of shirts—a long sleeved shirt followed by a t-shirt with a hoodie added—and packed a bag with her iPod, her cell phone and wallet, a worn out paperback of Wuthering Heights, and some other essentials plus her camera before heading out the door with Fenrir. Her mom had given her a camera last Christmas, and Bella had become obsessed with taking photos of Fenrir's growth along with the world around her.

The beach was deserted when she arrived. She supposed she couldn't blame the locals. What had started off as a sunny day had quickly turned into an overcast day that threatened rain. Bella wasn't deterred. She pulled her long brown hair into a messy bun and covered her head with the hood of her hoodie. Fenrir didn't seem to be bothered by the rain either. As soon as Bella attached his leash to his harness and let him out of the truck, he tried to pull Bella along behind him before she was even finished grabbing her things.

Bella wasn't having any of that. Instead, she gave Fenrir her patented look and told him, firmly, to wait. He cast a longing look towards the long stretch of beach, but lowered his head down and his ears back with only a slight whimper. She had learned the hard way that she couldn't give in. At ten months old, Fenrir already weighed nearly a hundred pounds and was almost three feet tall. He could definitely overpower her if she allowed him to.

Bella's eyes widened as she began the trek from the parking lot down to the shore, her eyes flitting every which way. She wasn't sure there were words to describe how beautiful and peaceful it was there. She dumped her things near some driftwood and jogged with Fenrir towards the water, laughing delightedly as she went. Fenrir stopped short of getting into the water though. He lowered his head to sniff the rocky sand, but when the tide came in and wet his face and feet, he whimpered and scrambled back towards Bella.

She sighed. "Silly puppy. You are too big to be scared. Come on, then," she said.

She walked away from the water and up towards the wooded area at the edge of the beach. The closer they got to the trees, however, the edgier Fenrir got. He started to pull at the leash, almost dragging her towards the trees. Bella was so surprised that she nearly lost her balance.

"Stop, Fen!"

She yelped as he growled and gave another strong pull forward. His ears were erect and his eyes were fastened on some distant point in the trees. He threw his head back and let out several long howls before running full force towards the trees. Bella tried to hang onto his leash, but she tripped over a rock and fell on the ground, knocking the breath out of her and dropping the leash as she did so. She stayed on the ground long enough to catch her breath before she jumped up to her feet and sprinted into the direction Fenrir was running towards. She had never seen him behave this way before. She probably should have been more careful today. She knew that wolfdogs were sometimes frightened of new environments. She supposed it was just a matter of too much too soon.

There was blood dripping down her forehead where she had cut herself on some driftwood when she fell and her side was cramping by the time she arrived where Fenrir was sitting perfectly still at the edge of the trees. She snatched the end of the leash up before resting her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. Fenrir gave a mix between a yelp and a bark and started moving forward again.

"No way, Fen," she panted as she finally looked up to see where he was trying to go.

She was startled to find herself almost face to face with a large half-naked man—a rather attractive half-naked man. Her eyes widened as she took in his bare-feet, his low riding cut-offs, his six-pack abs, and his chiseled chest, before finally raising her eyes to his face. He was absurdly handsome with russet-colored skin, ink-black hair, and dark eyes. Their eyes connected for several long seconds before his eyes flitted to the blood running down her forehead and onto her face before settling down on Fenrir who had finally moved back towards her and was now sitting at her feet.

"That a wolf?" the man asked, his voice was low and husky.

"Oh," Bella said, her breath going out of her in a whoosh. "No." She paused before correcting herself. "Well, sorta. I mean, not completely. Only 85% or so, I think."

"Pretty dangerous animal to keep as a pet, don't you think?" His eyes were back on her again. He appeared to be assessing her as if preparing to render some sort of judgment.

"Fen is perfectly safe!" she defended at once, her eyes narrowing when the man quirked an eyebrow at her. "He's never acted this way before. You must have startled him."

The man laughed lowly, almost to him self. "Must have."

Before she could say anything else, her cell phone that she was carrying in the pocket of her hoodie began to ring. By the time she fished it out of her pocket and answered it, the half-naked man was gone. She pushed the phone to her ear roughly as she scanned the trees, trying to see where the man had gone. She turned her attention back to the phone pressed at her ears where her dad was calling her name.

"Bells— _Bella_ —you there?"

"Ch—Dad, yeah, I'm here," she snapped a little harsher than she intended.

There was a pause before her dad spoke again. "Everything okay?"

Bella gave her head a bit of a shake to clear her thoughts and took a deep breath. When she spoke again, her voice was calmer. "Yes, Dad. I'm fine. Fen's just giving me a run for my money this morning. What's up?

Her dad chuckled. "Well, he does weigh nearly the same as you do, Bells. Never thought you were a dog person myself, let alone one that big…" he trailed off.

No one spoke for a moment or so. Finally, Bella let out a little sigh. "Did you need something, Dad?"

"Oh, yeah, I invited Billy Black and his boy, Jacob, to spend the afternoon with us. You remember him, don't you? The two of you were right as thieves when you were a kid. Thought I'd see if that was alright with you, but you were gone by the time I got up this morning."

Bella scrunched her eyes as tried to remember. There was a vague picture of a small boy with a curtain of jet-black hair and a beaming smile, but that was all. "Um, sure. Sounds fun. What time are they coming around? I'm down in La Push on the beach. I thought Fenrir might enjoy stretching his legs a bit."

"He said around noon or so."

"I'll head back in a few, then."

Bella ended the call, pocketed the phone, and took another deep breath before pulling Fenrir back to where she had stored her things. She dropped gracelessly to the ground after spreading out the blanket she'd brought. She fished out a compact from her bag and a tissue. She frowned when she saw the cut on the top of her forehead near her hairline and hissed when she pressed the tissue to it to halt the bleeding. It was then that she noticed there were scratches down her arms where she had fallen on the stones covering the beach.

"What a day," she muttered, glaring down at Fenrir whose large head was now in her lap. She still didn't really understand what had happened. The man had obviously been in the woods, and that wasn't that unusual although it was strange that he was shirtless when the temperature was in the mid-40's, but why had Fenrir acted that way? She supposed it didn't really matter. The man's dark eyes flashed through her mind once again. She flushed as she recalled the way he had looked at her. She pushed the man out of her mind. It wasn't like she would ever see him again—and didn't _that_ leave a cold feeling inside her?—and she had plenty of other things to worry about. No need for her to borrow trouble from tomorrow.

She stayed on the beach for a little while longer, loosing herself in thought as she watched the rolling waves crashing into the shore, before finally heading home. Charlie's cruiser was the only car in the driveway when she returned, so at least she would have some time to clean up a bit before the Blacks arrived. She deposited Fenrir into his enclosure and went into the house, only to walk into to find Charlie sitting with a heavyset older man in a wheelchair and a teenage boy with black silky hair and a bright smile—obviously the Blacks.

Charlie's eyes widened when he took in her harried appearance. "What happened to you?"

Bella blushed when she realized there were three sets of eyes on her. "Fenrir happened. Some man in the woods startled him, and he dragged me down the beach a ways."

Charlie frowned. "Man in the woods? Who was it? What were you doing talking to some man in the woods, Bella?"

She shrugged, trying to ignore Billy's dark eyes on her. "I didn't exactly have time to get his name. He disappeared back into the woods when you called. And I wasn't talking to him—he was talking to me, asking about Fen. He was strange, anyway, I mean, who goes around without a shirt or even shoes in this weather?"

She could see recognition flare momentarily in Billy's eyes before his expression cleared. She turned to the teenage boy and gave him a forced smiled. "You must be Jacob. It's nice to see you again."

Jacob didn't seen to notice her smile was forced as his face brightened at her words. "Yeah, you too. I'm glad you're finally here. Your dad has been talking about you nonstop ever since he learned you were coming."

Bella fled the awkward silence—and Billy's watching eyes—by going upstairs to take a shower. By the time she came back downstairs, everyone was ensconced in the living room watching the gamed.

"Hungry? I could make us something for lunch," she said, popping her head into the room. The older men nodded distractedly, but Jacob followed her back into the kitchen.

The two made small talk as Bella gathered the ingredients needed to make chili. She was still a little chilled from her morning at the beach, and she needed something to really warm up. Jacob filled the silence with chatter while Bella chopped and diced the various ingredients.

"So, nervous about starting a new school?"

Bella shrugged as she dumped the onions and peppers into the simmering pot. "A little," she admitted. "I'm not used to being in such a small school. My class back in Arizona had more people than Forks High does in all four years. I'm used to being able to blend into the crowd. I have a feeling I won't be able to do that here."

Jacob snorted, his expression unbelieving. "You? Blend in?" He must have noticed her puzzled expression because he continued. "It's just… you're so…" There was a red blush beneath his dark skin.

Luckily, Bella was saved from having to respond to Jacob's almost compliment by Fenrir howling outside. She grabbed a container of meat out of the refrigerator. "Come on," she told Jacob. "I'll introduce you to Fenrir. You'll need to get to know him if we're going to be spending time together."

They went out the door and around to the backyard where Fenrir's enclosure was. Jacob sucked in a hiss of breath as he saw Fenrir.

"Is that a…wolf?" His voice was strangled, an edge of fear beneath it.

"No, no, he's not," Bella assured him quickly. "He's only part wolf." She didn't go into details, not wanting to scare her new friend.

Jacob didn't seem reassured at all and refused to go into the enclosure to meet Fenrir officially even though Fenrir didn't seem bothered by his presence at all which was… admittedly a little strange. Fen wasn't aggressive with newcomers, really, but he tended to be extremely wary, almost frightened, of them. He even gave Charlie a wide berth despite the fact that he spent most nights sleeping with Bella in the house. That was why Bella had been so surprised by his actions earlier.

"What's that you're feeding him?" Jacob made a face as he watched her dump the contents of the container into Fen's large bowl.

"Raw meat. He doesn't eat normal dog food. Mostly organ meat and ground beef along with the occasional piece of fruit. He really likes watermelons, but he'll have to wait for summer to get anymore of those."

She couldn't tell whether Jacob was more disgusted or curious by the look on his face, but he didn't ask any more questions. They went upstairs and watched some Netflix on her laptop while they waited for the chili to cook. Bella had never had many close friends, so this was a new experience for her. She found herself enjoying Jacob's company even if she had felt the weight of his gaze on her while they watched some b rated horror movie that Jacob picked out. They spent more time making fun of the cheesy movie than they did watching it.

"You should come over tomorrow," Jacob said. They were watching Charlie load Billy into the cruiser. "You can watch me work on the car if you want."

Bella nodded enthusiastically. "Sure. That'll be fun."

Jacob's smile was blinding. "Great. See you then."

They spent the next afternoon hidden away in Jacob's garage. They chatted amiably as Jacob worked on some car he was rebuilding. He told Bella all about it, but mechanics held no meaning to her. Still, it was nice to listen to Jacob ramble on, comforting even, and after last night, it was just what she needed. Her sleep had been restless, filled with dreams—nightmares—of a gray wolf much larger than Fenrir. The wolf was stalking her in the dream, his intense eyes—the same eyes she'd seen in the face of the half-naked man—never leaving her as he advance on her. She had woken up screaming, which had startled Fenrir into a howling fit and had ultimately ended up waking Charlie, as the wolf chased her through the dark forest, so close she could feel its hot breath against her skin.

She jumped when she felt a hand on her jean-clan knee. Jacob looked down at her, a frown playing on his face. "Hey, everything okay?"

Bella pushed her hair off her face and nodded. "Yeah, fine. Sorry. Just thinking about last night. Had a bad dream."

She was glad that he didn't question her further. She tried to keep up with their conversation, replying in all of the appropriate spaces, but her mind was miles away. At First Beach, to be exact. "Mind if we go for a walk?"

Surprised at the non sequitur, Jacob hesitated briefly before shrugging. "Sure. Got a place in mind?"

"The beach. That is, if you don't mind?"

He shrugged again. "Doesn't bother me. Let me go grab a jacket, and we'll go."

The beach empty once again, but Bella had expected that. They ambled along the waterfront. She tried to surreptitiously scan the trees at the edge of the forest area, but Jacob must have noticed because he halted their walk and turned his attention to the trees.

"You see something over there?"

She shook her head a little too fast for it to be subtle. "No, not at all. I was just…curious," she finished lamely no doubt raising Jacob's suspicion.

She needn't have bothered worrying because Jacob seemed lost in his own thoughts.

"Dad's been warning me to stay out of the woods lately," he grumbled and tried to push his large hands into jean pockets. "Says it could be dangerous. Didn't see him say that to Sam Uley or his lackey, Paul, though, and I've seen both of them disappear into the woods more than once! 'Course, 'Chief Sam' can do no wrong."

Bella was surprised to hear the bitterness in Jacob's voice. He didn't seem the sort to have many enemies; he was so cheerful, so friendly. His good mood broken, they walked back to the house in silence. She hoped that his bad mood would dissipate, but it only seemed to get worse when he saw that Billy had visitors. Two hulking half-naked figures both wearing only cutoffs were standing on the stairs leading to the front door of Jacob's small house talking to Billy in low tones. As they approached the door, Bella noticed one of the men's back tensed, his head cocking to the slight before he turned around to face them.

Bella let out a gasp before she could stop herself. It was the man from before. His eyes drank her in greedily, his nostrils flaring slightly. A tense silence fell over the group as the other man turned away from Billy as well. Beside her, Jacob tensed and grabbed her hand, surprising Bella by his actions. It was then that the first man looked at where their hands were entangled. A look of fury came over his face; he was almost trembling in anger. In fact, he _was_! She took a step back, alarmed by the man's appearance. The other, larger, man put a hand on the trembling man's arm.

"Paul, get a hold of yourself," his voice was low and urgent. "Jacob, drop her hand— _now_ ," he added when Jacob hesitated.

The other man, Paul, she supposed, closed his eyes and shook his head back and forth. Bella could see the shudder go across his shoulders and down his spine. Before anything else could happen, he practically threw himself off of the porch and bolted for the forest that lined the back of Jacob's property. Bella's eyes darted back and forth from where Billy and the other man were standing to where Paul disappeared into the trees. She stumbled backwards from the scene, her eyes wide and her breath coming out in gasps. She didn't have a chance to say anything because Jacob grabbed her hand and yanked her back to his garage.

"What was that? Who was that?" she asked after Jacob slammed the door shut.

"Sam Uley and his lackey, Paul Lahote," he spat out.

"Wonder why they were talking to your dad?"

Bella chewed on her lower lip. He hadn't been asking about her, would he? That was silly, she rebuked herself. How would he even know to ask Billy? More importantly, why would he? Other than their brief interaction the day before, she had no idea who he was, and he definitely had no idea who she was. Still, she couldn't help but think he had been asking Billy about her. He hadn't looked at her like a stranger would. He looked at her like… well, like he wanted to consume her.

"Probably some sort of 'tribal business.' Dad and the other elders think the sun shines out of his ass. Paul's too."

Jacob got back to work on the car, but the unexpected visitors had managed to spoil the rest of the afternoon thanks to Jacob's awful mood.

Bella stayed long enough to be polite before citing Charlie's need for dinner as her reason for leaving. She imagined she felt Paul's eyes on her as she hurried from Jacob's garage to her truck, and down the long twisting highway back to Forks. It was only when she was safely tucked away in her house, Fenrir doing his best to impede her from cooking dinner, that she no longer felt their weight.

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Up next-The first day of school!


	3. Chapter Two

I got the idea for this fanfiction by reading a ton of different imprint stories. I realized that most of them were New Moon AU's, and it made me wonder, what if Bella met a wolf and was imprinted on _before_ she ever met Edward Cullen? How would the tale we know play out? Would Bella still be fascinated with Edward? Would he be fascinated with her? How would a relationship with one of the wolves change the dynamic of the Twilight saga. With that in mind, _Eventide_ was born.

Thank you for the alerts and reviews, guys! I love them all.

Disclaimer: Own nothing. I'm just playing in their sandbox. Took some things from both _Twilight_ and _Eclipse_ for this chapter. If you recognize anything, that's why.

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Chapter Two

The next morning Bella found herself back in La Push on First Beach. She had considered bringing Fen, but after the way he acted the last time she brought him, she thought twice about it. Instead, she decided to spend the morning taking photographs along First Beach. She stayed on First Beach for an hour or so, taking photographs of the ocean, the smooth stony beach, and the ancient looking pieces of driftwood. When she was done there, Bella decided to hike through the woods over to the tidal pools. For some reason, Bella's senses were on high alert as she made her way through the trees. Every little noise sent her eyes darting around. She didn't feel alone, but was that her imagination? Was it a wild animal watching her or someone else? Paul, perhaps?

Her face flushed in memory at her dream the previous night. It was decidedly not a nightmare, but that was almost even worse. She took a deep breath and pushed him out of her mind. What was her problem? Why couldn't she get this guy out of her head? He was attractive, yes, but from what Jacob said and what she had witnessed herself, he seemed to have some major anger issues. She had never been interested in boys or dating before anyway. It was one of the biggest things that separated her from her peers. She needed to stop thinking about Paul, and keep her mind on the important things. School began in two days, and even if it wouldn't be as difficult as her school in Phoenix since they didn't offer any AP classes let alone IB classes, she would still have work to do.

The beauty of the tidal pools took her breath away. She had been to see some of the natural monuments around Arizona, and while they had a beauty of their own, it was nothing compared to what she had seen since she arrived back in Forks. If not for the temperature, she might really be able to be happy here. She walked—carefully—around the different pools, snatching pictures of things as she went until the low battery light on her camera flashed. She wandered around the tidal pools for a while longer and then began the trek home.

She was halfway through the trail from the tidal pools back to the beach when she came across Jacob with two other boy his ages, one burly and one slim.

A smile split Jacob's face when he saw her. "Bella! I didn't know you were coming, but I saw your truck, so I assumed…" He pulled her into a hug.

Bella froze for a moment before returning the hug. "Yeah. I wanted to get some shots of the tidal pools."

Jacob let her go and rocked back on the balls of his feet. "Bells, meet Quil," he pointed to the burly one, "and Embry," he pointed to the slim one. "Guys, meet Bells."

She gave the two boys a smile. "So, what are you three up to?"

Quil's smile was impish. "Well, Jake here's been talking about you nonstop since he rolled out of bed this morning. Thought I'd see what the fuss was all about."

Jacob's eyes narrowed, and his hand shot out to cuff Quil on the back of his head. "Real funny, Ateara. We're going to play some X-Box. Want to come?"

She shook her head. "Can't, sorry. I need to go home and take Feni out for a bit. Unless you want to come with me? We could watch a movie or something, and I can make dinner. School starts Monday, so this is pretty much my last night of freedom."

"Sorry, Bells. We're spending the night with Embry tonight. My dad and Quil's grandfather have called some 'secret tribal counsel' meeting with Harry Clearwater," Jacob said, using air quotations. "They're probably going to get high and exchange fishing stories."

Bella laughed. "See you later, then."

A jittery feeling came over Bella as she drove away from the reservation. The closer she got to her house, the more anxious she felt. Not to mention the cold! The heat in the truck was on full blast, but she was still freezing.

"Get it together, Swan," she hissed to herself trying to gain some semblance of rationality before she got home.

It was only a little after noon when she pulled into the driveway. Charlie's cruiser was gone, so he must have been at work. Fenrir, at least, was there to greet her. She ducked into the house to drop her bag onto the table and grabbed Fenrir's leash before heading back out the door.

"Omph," she grunted as Fenrir nearly knocked her over in his zeal to get to her. "Be sweet, Fen."

The leash was barely secured to his collar before Fenrir was pulling her towards the trail they walked most often. She sighed and allowed him to lead for the moment. Thankfully, he calmed down almost as soon as they entered the forest proper. Strangely enough, so did she, though the chill still remained. She rambled down the path, her eyes flitting to and fro, stopping occasionally so Fenrir could 'mark' his way or scarf down a flower or a bug. The light was different in the forest; it had a greenish tint to it that filtered down from the canopy to the forest floor. When they had walked for a while, Bella sank onto the trunk of a fallen tree. She closed her eyes and listened to the chirping of the birds and the wind whistling through the trees.

Her eyes shot open as she heard the crunching break of a stick further into the forest. Fenrir was at attention at once howling loudly. Bella threw herself off of the log and spun around in an attempt to see whatever had made the noise.

"Be quiet," she hissed at Fenrir, yanking at his leash when he started trying to go further into the woods. He howled once more, and then Bella nearly toppled over as she froze in place because Fenrir wasn't just howling to howl—no, he was howling in response to another howl. Bella wasn't sure how far away it was, but whatever it was, she had no intention of meeting it. With a force she didn't know she had, she pulled Fenrir back down the trail to her house. He was reluctant at first, whimpering and pulling to go the opposite way, but a harsh command from Bella finally made him stop struggling.

She let out a sigh of relief when she broke through the tree cover and found herself back in her own backyard. Until, that was, she noticed Paul's long figure leaning against the side of Fenrir's enclosure, once again wearing nothing but low-riding cut-offs, his arms crossed across his bare chest. She couldn't help eyeing the man's corded muscles briefly before meeting his eyes once more. Neither one of them spoke for a minute or so, but Bella was pulled from her thoughts by Fen trying to pull her towards him.

"You're Paul Lahote, aren't you?" she asked edging her away passed the enclosure and towards the house, Fenrir pulling against her all the while. What was with him? Why did he want to get to Paul so much?

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," he shrugged. "What's it to you?"

Bella spluttered. "What's it—what's it to _me?_ I should be the one asking questions since it's my house you're at uninvited."

Nonplussed and amused, he pursed his lips. "Is that so." It was a statement, not a question, which only served to make Bella angrier.

"Yeah, that is so. Why are you following me around?"

"Now why would I do that?"

"Can't you just answer a simple question!" Bella said; she threw her arms into the air and made a disgusted noise.

"I'm not following you."

"Oh, so it's a coincidence that you came to Jacob's house when I was there, and that you just happened to stumble across my house despite the fact that we've never been introduced!" She jerked her head towards the driveway where her trunk sat alone. "How did you get here anyway…. wait, that was you in the forest just now, wasn't it?"

He just cocked his eyebrow at her, which sent a shiver of anger through her entire body. She took a deep breath in an attempt to relax.

"How did you even know where I lived? Did Billy tell you?" She demanded, her eyes narrowed.

He didn't answer her, though. He just closed the space between them with a sinuous grace that was highly unnatural and reached out to tuck an errant piece of hair behind her ear, his eyes never leaving hers.

"You should stay out of the woods, Little Red, if you're smart. You never know what sort of monsters are lurking there."

Bella's eyes fluttered shut as one of his fingers ghosted across her cheek trailing an unnatural heat in its wake. He was gone when she opened her eyes leaving no trace of his presence behind. She barely made it into the house before her legs folded beneath her, and she fell to the floor.

It was still dark when she woke up on her first day of school. She was absolutely exhausted. She was having trouble falling asleep because Fenrir had spent the last two nights howling at her bedroom window ever since seeing Paul outside her house. When she could go to sleep, her dreams were haunted by Paul, a large gray wolf, and oddly enough, Sarah. The dream was consistent but slightly different. Either Paul or the wolf would be reaching out for her on one side of a large chasm while Sarah was on the opposite side with he, repeating the same thing over and over again: _"He picked you. That's the way of it."_ At least her dad was a good sport about it all. He said he could hardly hear the howling over her snores.

Bella was showered, dressed, and on her second cup of coffee—that was more cream and sugar than coffee—when Charlie came down the stairs pulling on his holster. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down across from her.

"Nervous about today, Bells?"

Bella shook her head. "Nah. I just hope the novelty doesn't take too long to wear off."

"Don't count on it," he warned. "You're the first new student since the Cullens moved here from Alaska two years back."

They spent the rest of breakfast in companionable silence before both father and daughter left the house at the same time, Bella to school and Charlie to work.

The school wasn't what Bella expected. Instead of a large institutional-like building, like her old school back in Phoenix, Forks High School consisted of a collection of what appeared to be brick house interspersed by trees and shrubs. She collected her schedule from the front building and made her way back to the student parking lot. She was almost forty-five minutes early, so she put her ear buds into her ears in the hope that listening to music would calm her down. The jittery feeling she had felt after leaving the reservation the other day had returned within hours of the Paul incident. She felt so jittery and on edge that she was surprised she wasn't jumping out of her skin. Of course, the coffee probably wasn't helping anything, but there was no way she'd be able to stay awake today without it.

She spent the rest of the time before school officially began observing the students as they arrived and practicing the meditation techniques she learned during Renee's yoga/meditation/spiritual guru phase a few years back. She'd been much too clumsy to manage yoga, but she had used meditation on occasion to calm down before a test. Thankfully, it helped somewhat, enough so she was able to get out of the truck in a composed state.

English with Mr. Mason was mind numbing. She had already read through everything on the list at least once and some more than others. She tried to ignore the students gawking at her, but it was difficult to do, as some of them were none too subtle in their attempts, twisting nearly entirely around in their seats to look at her. She tucked her ear buds back into her ears as soon as the bell ring and checked her schedule once more before sticking it back in her pocket. The rain, which had been only a drizzle before class, had become steady. She pulled the hood of her jacket close so she wouldn't get wet and made her way to building 6 for her next class. The majority of the morning passed with little fanfare with the exception of Trigonometry. Not only had the teacher—Mr. Varner?—forced her to introduce herself in the front of the class, but she had also tripped on her way to her seat on her very own boots.

By lunchtime, she was a complete mess. She ended up sitting with Angela, a quiet girl who shared several of her classes, and a group of Angela's other girls. Bella tried to make idle conversation with them, but the jittery feeling was getting steadily worse, and she was filled with the longing to be on the reservation either with Jacob in his little garage or wandering the beaches watching the storm blow in. One of the girls—she couldn't remember her name, maybe Jessica or Jennifer—wouldn't stop talking about the Cullens, the last newcomers to arrive in Forks, she dropped her voice only slightly when the group of five students came in.

They were, in Jessica/Jennifer's defense, breathtakingly beautiful even the three boys in the group. But Bella was distracted from her observation of their beauty by a chill going down her spine, and her heart racing so quickly she thought it might fly right out of her chest. There was something about them. The way they walked, the way they moved, that reminded her of the nature documentaries she'd watched as a kid where the sleek predators of the Serengeti or the rain forest hunted their prey. She didn't stop; she didn't think. Instead, she fled the cafeteria, throwing a muttered excuse at her table partners before she sought sanctuary in her truck. It was only once she was in her truck with the doors locked right that she calmed down.

What was that all about? She felt like she was losing her mind. She could chalk the jittery feeling up to the anxiety of moving and starting a new school perhaps, but that didn't explain her reaction to the Cullens entering the cafeteria. All she knew was that she had to leave right then. She wondered why she had reacted that way. She remembered Jacob mentioning something about his father not liking the Cullens, but she couldn't remember why. She dug her cellphone out of her bag and dialed Jacob's number when her breathing had regulated itself. The school on the reservation didn't start back until next week, so he should be there. Maybe he could help her figure out what her problem was.

It was Billy Black's deep voice that answered the phone though, not Jacob. "Hello?"

Bella hesitated. "Billy, hi, um, is Jacob around?"

There was silence on the line for a minute. Billy's voice was heavier somehow when he responded. "Bella, shouldn't you be at school today? Is anything wrong?"

She let out a nervous laugh. "No, no, everything's fine, and I am at school—it's lunch time," she explained quickly. "I just thought I'd call Jacob and see how he was."

She didn't know whether Billy bought her excuse or not, but he did call Jacob who picked up the phone a moment letter, sounding elated to hear from her. "Bells! How is your first day going?"

"Terrible. Listen, are you sitting next to your dad?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"I need to ask you a question. You remember what you told me the other day about Charlie and your dad fighting because your dad doesn't like the Cullens?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Do you remember why your dad doesn't like them?"

"I can't really talk about that right now," Jacob said hesitantly. "Why?"

"Jacob! It's important."

He sighed gustily. "Look, come over when you get out of school, and I'll tell you what I can. It's not much, but it's all I know."

"I can't wait until then! I just saw them in the cafeteria and nearly had a panic attack in the cafeteria." She took a long deep breath. "Something really weird is going on with me, Jacob." Before she knew what she was doing, she was spilling everything out to him, her voice rising until it bordered on hysterical. "I can't sleep because either Feni is keeping me up howling all night or I'm having nightmares, I'm so jittery and on edge I feel like I'm going to vibrate out of my skin, and I thought I was having some sort of heart attack just now during lunch when the Cullens entered the cafeteria." Her voice cracked on the last word, and she was surprised to find tears burning her eyes. She was not much of a crier; in fact, she could not remember the last time she cried in anything other than anger—her tear ducts seemed to be connected to her fierce temper.

"Hey, hey," Jacob started in a soothing tone. "You've had a lot going on the last few weeks, remember? Your mom got married, and you moved in with Charlie. All of that plus starting a new school is just making you nervous. Come over after school, and we can relax, okay? And about the _other_ thing… I wouldn't worry about it—just a bunch of old men being ridiculous."

She took another deep breath, brushing the tears away from her cheek. "Yeah, you're probably right. I have to go anyway. Time for Biology."

"See you later?"

"Yeah, see you later."

Bella spent the time remaining before lunch ended getting herself back together. She ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to undo the damage done by the rain and wiped her face with the Kleenex from the glove compartment. When she was finished, her face still looked a little red and her hair a little disheveled, but she didn't look like she'd been crying at least. On the way to class, she managed to convince herself that there was nothing to worry about. She was just overwrought because she hadn't slept well lately. Jacob was right that Bella had gone through a lot of changes lately. She was determined to be as optimistic as she could be.

That all changed when she actually got to the class. There was only one empty seat in the classroom—the seat next to one of the Cullens. She repeated the mantra of _nothing to worry about, nothing to worry about, nothing to worry about_ in her head as she made her way to the front of the class to get the teacher, Mr. Banner, to sign her slip and collect her books. She faced the Cullen fully when she was walking to the empty seat next to him. What she saw made her stop short: his coal-black eyes were staring at her with a hostile and furious expression on his face.

She ignored the ever-present jittery feeling and her racing heart and sat down practically on the edge of her chair, the furthest away from him she could go. She tried to pay attention to Mr. Banner's lecture, but it was difficult to do so when she could almost feel the heat of his glare on the side of her face. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, but his expression never changed. He was sitting absolutely still like a statue—she couldn't even see the usual rising and falling of his chest as he breathed—and his hands were both curled into fists so tight that she could the tight muscles beneath his skin. Even though his entire body was angled away from her and he was sitting on the far edge of his chair, he looked like he was ready to pounce on her.

Bella gasped when the bell rang, and he rose fluidly out of his chair and exited the room so quickly her hair lifted, as it would do on a windy day. She was so shocked by the entire encounter, from his hostile looks to his angry body language—if looks could kill, Bella was sure she would be ten-feet under right now—that she didn't move for a minute or two. A blond guy, who looked like he walked right off the pages of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog, looked as puzzled as Bella felt.

"What was Cullen's problem?" he asked after introducing himself as Mike.

Bella shrugged; she didn't know, but she wasn't sticking around to find out. Instead of following most of the students to the gym, Bella turned around and went the opposite way to the parking lot instead. She still had another period, but she was so close to just falling apart that she didn't think she could make it through another class. She'd make her excuses to Charlie and the school later, but she couldn't spend another second there.

She hadn't realized how much pressure she was under until she felt it dissipate when she drove past the "Welcome to La Push" sign. She wasn't completely calm, but at least the jittery feeling was gone, and her heartbeat slowed down to almost normal. She let out a deep breath and pressed her forehead into the steering wheel when she had finally pulled into the driveway of Jacob and Billy's little red house. She would have stayed in the car longer, but she noticed the curtain of the window at the front of the house moving. She was already feeling better, but she knew that seeing Jacob would definitely help her. They had only been reunited for a couple of days, but she already felt closer to him than she had ever felt to another person—in a completely platonic, friend-like way, of course.

Billy, not Jacob, answered the door when she knocked. He didn't say anything, at first, but his eyes were examining her. It almost seemed like he was looking for something though she had no idea what it could be.

"Is Jacob here?" she asked, finally, after a minute or two had passed.

"He's with Embry and Quil. He'll be back in an hour or so. He wasn't expecting you so soon. Why don't you come on in and wait inside?"'

She brushed past him into the house and sat on the little threadbare loveseat behind him in the living room. She fiddled with a string hanging off of her jacket trying to look anywhere but up at Billy's ancient eyes. The look of hate and revulsion on Cullen's face flashed through her mind. Jacob had said he didn't know much, but maybe Billy did…. maybe _he_ would tell her?

She looked away from her lap and cleared her throat. "Billy, could I ask you a question?"

He pursed his lips and nodded. "Sure, sure, Bella. Ask away."

"Jacob mentioned something about you and my dad fighting before—over…the Cullens… could you tell me, I mean—why don't you like them?"

"Well, now, Bella, that's a difficult question. How about you tell me why you want to know about the Cullens?"

A shudder went through her entire body as his cold eyes flashed in her mind again. She looked around the small room before settling on Billy's serenely calm face though she could see a hint of worry in his eyes. "You're going go think I sound crazy," she finally said tearing her eyes away from Billy and staring down at her lap once again.

One of Billy's large hands gave her leg a comforting squeeze. "I promise I won't."

She met his eyes and sighed. "One of them…I don't know which one because it isn't like I know _him_ or that he knows _me_ …is in my Biology class…" She trailed off. "This is ridiculous. It isn't like he actually _did_ anything to me, but the way he looked at me…" Her teeth worried her lower lip. "There's something wrong with them. As soon they came into the cafeteria during lunch, I had to leave because I almost had a panic attack right there, but then there he was in my Biology class. He was terrifying—I've never seen someone look at me like that before, like he hated me, like he wanted to kill me right where I sat. I know Charlie'll be mad at me for ditching school; I've never done that before, but I just couldn't stand to be there, and I always feel much better when I'm in La Push."

When he spoke, it was almost as if he was approaching a wild animal, calmly and soothingly, "Why don't you go lie down in Jacob's room and rest? I'll make some phone calls and take care of the Cullen boy. You don't have to worry about him. He won't touch you especially while you're here."

Not knowing what else to do, Bella complied. She felt relieved in a way to get it all out there, and then there was the fact she could tell Billy believed her. He didn't think she was crazy, that she was making it up, or that she was overreacting. Jacob's bed was soft, so it was easy for her to get comfortable, and she could smell his scent on his blanket and on his pillow. Bella was almost asleep within a matter of minutes when she heard Billy's deep voice.

"Sam, we have a problem… It's Bella… No, no, she's fine... keep him there with you for now…" There was a long stretch of silence. "She has a class with one of the Cullens, not sure which one… I don't think so, but we shouldn't take a chance, give it the opportunity…might be time to speak to the doctor, reveal our presence, reinforce the parameters of the treaty, maybe add on something to include her…Well, what do you expect me to do?... we can't keep eyes on her all of the time….Fine, I'll send Jacob over to Quill's for the night."

The words continued, but their meaning was lost to Bella as sleep pulled her completely under. She woke up with no knowledge of how much time had passed since falling asleep. There was still light filtering through the small window in Jacob's room, but only barely. She could see the beginning stages of sunset, the pinks and oranges stretching across the sky. She blinked her eyes and sat up dislodging a large, extremely warm—so warm that the heat seeped through the material of her clothing, warming the skin beneath and causing her to sweat slightly—hand from her stomach as she did so.

"What—?" a sleepy, confused voice asked from her side.

Bella whipped her head around and found Paul sitting in a chair next to the bed, his large body seeming even larger in the small space of Jacob's room. She opened her mouth several times to speak before the words finally came to her.

"Paul, why are you—what are you doing here?"

He stood up and stretched languidly, Bella's eyes watching the rippling of his muscles, from his chiseled abdomen to his broad shoulders, as he did so. He caught her checking him out and smirked, causing Bella to flush brightly and quickly avert her eyes.

"See something you like?"

Bella scowled, feeling the same frustration and annoyance that Paul seemed to provoke in her whenever he opened his mouth. She was so busy thinking about how annoying he was—and smug and arrogant and infuriating—she didn't notice him reaching out for her until a searing heat grabbed her by her upper arm and pulled her from the bed.

"Hey!" she cried out after she was standing upright. "Who do you think—you can't just do that!"

He gave her a look that said, _I think I just did_ , but didn't offer her any other response. Instead, he moved his hand from her arm to the small of her back. Bella jerked away from him to no avail.

"Come on, Little Red. I'm starving, and I know you haven't eaten since breakfast."

She reluctantly let him lead her into the dinning room area, mostly because it didn't seem worth it to put up a fight, but also because she realized how much better she felt when he was near her. Maybe it was because she got some sleep, but she thought it was more than that. She felt calm, relaxed, for the first time in days, and the cold that had been plaguing her, causing her to pile several blankets on her bed at night and wear several layers of clothes during the day, was gone. It didn't seem possible, but could Paul have something to do with how she was feeling?

Jacob was nowhere in sight when they got to the small dining room that was really more like a breakfast nook made even smaller because a large man—Sam Uley, maybe?—and Billy already sitting around the small table. Paul pushed her gently into the only free chair and then leaned against the kitchen counter, his presence heavy next to her.

Billy spoke first. "I called Charlie and let him know where you were and told him you would be eating with us tonight."

Bella nodded and chewed on her lower lip. Her eyes moved from Billy to Sam to Paul and then back to Billy. "Did you tell Charlie why I came over?"

"Ah, no. I didn't. I know it's not right to keep things from your dad, but sometimes there are larger, more important, things at work. Things that are best kept secret."

"Like why you dislike the Cullens?"

Billy nodded. "What we're about to tell you must be kept secret, Bella, from your father, from Jacob, from everyone. It is our tribe's most coveted secret. No one outside of the tribal council and those affected ever know of its existence."

Bella's eyes widened. "Why tell me then? I mean, I'm not a member of your tribe; I'm not anyone important."

"I think you'll find that is the furthest thing from the truth. Now, let me introduce you to Sam Uley, and you've already met Paul."

"Hey," she murmured, studying Sam's face before turning back to Billy. Sam looked older than Paul and maybe a little bigger, but the biggest difference was the serene look of calm on his face. Sam nodded in response and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Now, Bella, what you need to know is that the Quileute's have always had magic in our blood—the magic of shape-shifting. Over the centuries, when the enemies of the tribe were present, the magic in our blood would ignite and our warriors would be gifted with the magic needed to defeat our most dangerous enemies, the Cold Ones."

Bella was entranced in the story until she heard the unfamiliar term. "Cold Ones?"

A rumbling growl came from Paul, and she could see his arms begin to tremble from the corner of her eye. "Leeches, bloodsuckers," he spat out.

Sam gave Paul a pointed look. "Calm down, Paul, or you'll have to leave." He turned, then, to her. "Vampires, Bella. Our greatest enemies are vampires."

Bella sucked in a harsh breath, her head spinning. "Vampires," she repeated weakly. "And you're…shape-shifters."

Sam nodded. "Werewolves, yes. Paul and I are the only ones for now, but since the change has been triggered, there will be more to come."

Her heart began to beat faster. "The magic ignites when you're enemies are present." She paused. "So, that would mean that…if the change has triggered, then there must be vampires around, too."

"Clever girl. Go on," Paul said. He moved behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders causing her to heart beat to slow almost immediately at his touch.

Bella considered everything she knew. "If there are only two of you, then, the change couldn't have been triggered very long ago. How long have you been werewolves?"

Sam was the one to respond. "I've been a wolf for over a year. Paul for six months."

She chewed on her lower lip in concentration. Besides the Quileutes being werewolves, what else did she know? Then, it hit her: the Cullens. Charlie had said they had moved here from Alaska two years ago. It fit the timing perfectly. The Cullens moved to Forks two years ago triggering the change in the Quileutes and causing Sam to become a werewolf a year later.

Her voice was hushed when she spoke again. "The Cullens are vampires."

All three men nodded.

She held her hand over her mouth, her eyes widening in fear and repeated it once more. "The Cullens are vampires…so today, in class, when he looked at me with that look on his face…. it was because what…. he wanted to suck my blood?"

Sam reached over to put his hand on the hand that was sitting on the table. Bella jerked her hand back almost violently. "It's hard to say, Bella. Our tribe has a treaty with the Cullens. They hunt animals instead of humans. They have vowed to never bite a human, but they are dangerous, and mistakes do happen."

"You don't have to worry, though," Billy said. "Sam called and set up a meeting with the leader of the Cullens to discuss what happened today, and I'm sure Paul here will make sure that they understand the importance of keeping one of their own under control. They have been here two years without incident, and my great-grandfather believed in them enough to call a truce. I would stay away from them if you can."

She didn't say anything for a long while, the implications of everything running through her head. Everything she thought she had known had been turned upside down in one afternoon, and she had been taken from the world of ignorance, the normal world, and thrust into this world of monsters and magic. There were so many questions to ask, but the most important one was why? Why had they told her?

"You said this was your tribe's most coveted secret—that only those directly affected know… If that's true, then why did you tell me? Why tell me that you're werewolves and the Cullens are vampires? I don't understand."

"There are many other legends surrounding the werewolves. One of these legends are the reason you are allowed to know," Sam began. "There was a legend describing how werewolves find their other half, their soul mate. It was supposed to be rare, but I'm not sure how true that is anymore. Imprinting happens to a werewolf when they see their other half for the first time. It's a sort of magic all of its own, and we still don't know much about it, but what we do know is that when it happens, it is similar to love at first sight but much stronger and more absolute. When a werewolf imprints on their other half, their entire world is rearranged. Suddenly, it's not the earth holding him here anymore. She does. Nothing matters more than her. He would do anything for her, be anything for her... Become whatever she needs him to be, whether that's a protector, or a lover, or a friend, or a brother."

That was when she knew. She didn't need Sam to say another word because she knew. "Paul imprinted on me in the woods that first day, didn't he?"

Sam nodded. "Yes, he did. We were going to tell you the other day, but Paul lost his temper."

Bella looked up at Paul, then. "Is this why you have been following me? Because I'm your soul mate?"

His grip on her shoulders tightened. "Yeah, that's why."

* * *

So, there we have it. Bella knows lots of stuff now. A lot of stuff went on in this chapter. I feel like a little too much, but hopefully you guys didn't think so. I'm still unsure of how Paul's characterization is going to pan out. We get so little of him in the books. I am playing with his age because i feel like he should be older than Jacob especially since he phased much sooner than him and imprinted on his older sister.

Up next: Bella's reaction to the imprint and her return to school.


	4. Chapter Three

I got the idea for this fanfiction by reading a ton of different imprint stories. I realized that most of them were New Moon AU's, and it made me wonder, what if Bella met a wolf and was imprinted on _before_ she ever met Edward Cullen? How would the tale we know play out? Would Bella still be fascinated with Edward? Would he be fascinated with her? How would a relationship with one of the wolves change the dynamic of the Twilight saga. With that in mind, _Eventide_ was born.

Thank you for the alerts and reviews, guys! I love them all.

I wanted to respond to a Guest reviewer: I listed Jacob and Edward because they will both play parts in this story. Jacob is Bella's best friend. Edward is...well, you'll see. I don't plan on Jacob acting like a love sick child, but there will be some jealousy between Jacob and Paul.

Disclaimer: Own nothing. I'm just playing in their sandbox. Took some things from both _Twilight_ and _Eclipse_ for this chapter. If you recognize anything, that's why.

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Chapter Three

Bella said nothing for a few minutes. Soul mates. It was such a large encompassing concept. Of course, she had heard people say they had met their soul mate, but this largely consisted of Renee and her boyfriend of the week or the girls at school talking about their crushes. She had always thought it was ridiculous like love at first sight. The idea that there was only one person for you seemed so illogical. It might sound romantic—she thought of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Katherine and Heathcliff, or Jane and Mr. Rochester—but she had always thought that if something sounded too good to be true, it likely was especially when it came to her favorite literary loves. So, what did she think now that she had been told she had a soul mate? She wanted to dismiss the entire notion of soul mates out of hand, but…but… she found that she couldn't. She recalled the dream Renee had months ago about her being happy with a wolf; she recalled Sarah's cryptic comments; she recalled the dreams _she_ herself had had.

Could there be a correlation between Renee's dreams and her adopting Fenrir and to being Paul's soul mate, his imprint? It didn't make any sense, but maybe it wasn't supposed to. She had just been told that both vampires and werewolves exist. Why was it such a stretch of the imagination, then, for soul mates to be real?

"Dreams…" she said, finally. She looked up at Paul once again. "For the last couple of nights, I've had a dreams about you and a wolf—a really large wolf. I'm guessing that's you. Is your wolf form grayish silver?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Like Fenrir?"

"Close, but not exactly."

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. If she had dreamed about his wolf form before she had ever officially met him, before she had even known he was a werewolf, then this gave her the idea that her mother's dream and Sarah were connected to Paul. "Do you believe that some people can see the future?"

She wasn't surprised to see incredulous looks on the three men's faces. "I'm not saying that I think I can see the future, but it's strange. Two years ago, my mom had a dream that I was one day going to be happy with a wolf. That dream led me to adopting Fenrir from this old woman on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Reservation down in Arizona. She claimed that he picked me once he saw me because that was how it was done. Without Fen, who knows if I would have met Paul that day?" She rubbed a hand over her face and through her hair. "I don't really know what to say or what to do here. I mean, I don't even know you, and you don't know me. But all of that has to mean something, right? They can't all just be coincidences, can they?"

"You are right to believe that there is some connection," Billy said slowly. "As I said before, magic has always been in our blood. It could be that the great spirits had a role in putting you near Paul in order for you to meet. I will have to check with the journals from our ancestors and see if there is any mention of something similar happening before."

Bella nodded absently. How could her life have changed so much in one day? Yesterday her biggest concern had been surviving her first day at school. Now, she had vampires, werewolves, and magic to worry about. And then there was Paul… Tall, dark, attractive, arrogant, smug Paul... who now cared about her to the exception of all others...She could hardly fathom a love like that. It was a little terrifying, to be honest, especially to someone who had never had so much as a date or a simple kiss before.

"Is the imprint why all of these strange things have been happening to me? Why I'm always so cold, why I can't stop thinking or dreaming about you, and why I only feel calm when I am here in La Push?"

"Not just in La Push," Paul corrected. "It's when we're near one another, but yeah. I feel like that, too. That is why I was following you. I wasn't trying to be a stalker or anything, but I had to see you, be near you, if I could. I've never heard anything about the cold thing, though."

"It's not in any of the journals that we know of, but it happens to Emily, too, if we're apart for too long," Sam said. "It's another side effect of the bond."

He stood up. "I should go. Em won't be happy if I'm not home in time for dinner. Paul, why don't you make sure Bella gets home okay?" He turned to her, then. "Paul will give you my phone number if you have any questions that he can't answer. Try not to worry about the Cullens. I arranged for Paul and I to meet with the head Cullen tonight at midnight to discuss what happened today, and I'm willing to bet that Paul will be sticking around the school tomorrow to keep an eye on things."

"So, what, you're going to follow me around school? Won't that be a little suspicious?"

Paul smirked, but there was a hard, angry look in his eyes. "Not exactly. I'm more than capable of escaping notice if I want to."

Bella thanked Billy for all of her help before she followed Paul out to her truck. She wasn't sure when she had given Paul her keys—had she given them to him?—but she soon found herself tucked into the passenger seat while Paul drove the truck. Neither of them said a word on the drive back to Forks, but the air was full of electricity.

She opened her mouth half a dozen times to say something but closed it without speaking every time. She had to say something though. She finally gathered the courage after Paul pulled her truck into the driveway next to Charlie's cruiser. "So, now what?" she asked, not even daring to look at him.

Paul put one of his scorching fingers under her chin and tilted her face until their eyes were meeting. Bella gasped, but she wasn't sure whether she did so because he was touching her or because of the look in his eye. "It's up to you, Little Red. You heard what Sam said, though he tends to look through rose-colored glasses a little too much for my tastes. I'll be whatever you want me to be, but you should think carefully before making a decision because once you do, once you agree to be mine, there's no going back. You'll be mine completely. I share my body with a wolf, and wolves mate for life. It won't accept anything less. This isn't a fairytale, and I'm not some knight in shining armor or Prince Charming. I was dangerous and volatile even before imprinting, and if anything, it's worse now. You saw how I lost control the other day when I saw Jacob touching you. If I lost control around you, I could hurt you even if I didn't want to."

Bella would be a fool not to hear the truth in his words. She believed one hundred percent that he was dangerous, so all she said was a soft, "Okay."

"You should get inside and eat something since we never ended up eating earlier. I put Sam's number and mine in your phone while you were sleeping, so you can call me if you want. I'll see you in the morning."

She watched him as he tossed her the keys and exited the truck after she did so She wondered how he was going to get back to La Push without a car, but then he headed towards the woods.

"Wait!" she called before she could stop herself. He paused and turned around to look at her, waiting for her to speak. "What do you mean in the morning?"

"I'll drive you to school. I don't know what will happen tonight at the meeting, but I would feel better taking you instead of letting you go alone. Plus, having my scent on you might deter the leeches."

He disappeared into the woods before Bella could say another word.

Bella spent the rest of the night in a daze. Luckily Charlie ordered pizza, so she didn't have to cook because she wasn't sure she could concentrate on anything right now. She tried to spend some time with Charlie, but he fell asleep in his recliner not long after they finished dinner and turned on one of those cheesy procedural cop shows that he was hooked on. Bella thought he liked them so much because the crimes they came across were more exciting than the speeding tickets or petty thefts that Charlie mostly dealt with.

Her mind turned to Paul as she went through her nightly bedtime routine of showering and making sure her things were ready for the morning. She kept replaying all of their previous encounters, studying them for more meaning. She remembered the first time they met—was it really only days ago?—and the way he looked at her. Of course, she also remembered how much he bothered her—how he seemed to live to infuriate her by answering her own questions with questions and being smug. She would be lying to herself if she said that he didn't intrigue her, but she would be equally lying to herself if she weren't the slightest bit afraid of him. Now, whether she was afraid of him physically hurting her, or if she was just afraid of what he represented, she wasn't sure.

She was able to sleep the night through without having a single nightmare or being awakened by Fenrir howling, but her sleep was not as restful as it had been the previous afternoon. The jittery feeling was back along with the cold. Now that she knew what was causing it, the symptoms didn't bother her as much. Before she thought she was going crazy, but now she knew it was because of the imprint. She was trying to figure out whether she should really wait for Paul or to drive herself to school when there was a knock on the door. She finished the last bit of orange juice in her glass, grabbed her belongings, and opened the front door.

Paul was standing there, but for the first time since meeting him, he was not half naked. Instead, he was wearing a white t-shirt that was stretched tight across his chest and contrasted nicely with his dark skin and a worn in pair of jeans that had grease stains on them and hung low on his waist. She blushed bright red when he caught her practically ogling him and winked. He used her embarrassment as a distraction, and by the time Bella realized what was going on, he had her car keys and was starting the truck.

"Met with the leeches last night," he told her as he drove towards the school. "Dr. Leech says he went away, but we aren't taking any chances. I'll be watching."

She was relieved to hear that Cullen wouldn't be at school that day, but she still felt apprehensive knowing he could come back anytime. Because they had arrived later than she had the day before, the parking lot was filled with people, people who were watching with avid expressions as Bella and Paul got out of her truck. She wasn't sure who was more surprised, herself or her audience, when Paul wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. She sucked in a sharp breath when he buried his face in the crook of her neck and felt his breath hot against her sensitive skin.

He moved his lips to her ears and murmured, "My scent on you should be enough to keep the remaining leeches away from you. If not, give me a call. I'll be around until lunch at least, maybe longer."

Everyone's eyes followed Bella as she made her way from the parking lot to her English class, and she could hear their excited whispers. She ignored them all, choosing instead to pull out her notebook and take careful notes on the teacher's lecture on _Wuthering Heights_. She knew she wouldn't be able to escape them altogether though, and sure enough, one of the girls who she now knew to be Jessica Stanley, cornered her on her way to her second class.

"Who was that guy that you were with this morning? Is he your boyfriend or something?"

"Or something," she muttered too low for the girl to hear. Out loud, she said, "He's a friend."

Jessica did not look like she believed that, but luckily, for Bella, class was starting, so she was saved from explaining further. Unfortunately, however, this seemed to open the floodgate because Jessica spent the rest of the morning trying to talk her ear off. Bella was finally able to escape her on the way to lunch as Jessica headed towards the cafeteria, and Bella headed to her truck. Even if she knew that the Cullen she shared Biology with wasn't there, she had no desire to be near any of them, so she spent the lunch hour in her truck.

After lunch, Jessica was not the one following her around. Mike Newton caught up with her on her way to Biology and kept up a constant stream of chatter. He resumed the stream of chatter after Biology as if he had never stopped talking. He would have bothered her on a normal day, but with Paul leaving sometime during lunch and the now familiar feeling associated with his absence settling in, she was in no mood to even pretend to listen to him.

If all of that wasn't enough, her first gym class was a disaster just as she suspected it would be. They were playing volleyball, and Mike insisted on her being on his team. She tried to warn him and the others that she was dangerous on any type of court, but they didn't listen. There were a few near misses during her turn as server, but it was sometime after that that she managed to hit Mike in the head with a ball not once but twice.

When school was over, Bella stopped by her house to leave Charlie a note and grab Fenrir and then left for La Push. She wasn't sure where to go to once she got there. She could go to Jacob's or to the beach. What she really wanted to do was to see Paul, but she didn't know where he lived or where he actually was. She decided on Jacob's house since she never got to see him yesterday. She said hello to Billy before going into the garage where he said Jacob and his two friends were. Billy didn't say anything to her about their conversation the day before, but he had a knowing look on his face.

Jacob and Quil were bent over the hood of a car while Embry stood over to the side when she and Fenrir entered. She watched them work for a minute before clearing her throat. Jacob whirled around, smiling when he caught sight of her.

"Bella, I'm so sorry about yesterday; my dad sent me over to Quil's house."

"It's fine. No worries," she said. "Working on the car again?"

Mentioning the car sent the boys on an in-depth discussion on what was wrong with the car and how it could be fixed. Jacob gave her several significant looks, probably because of her frantic phone call to him yesterday, but didn't say anything about it because Quil and Embry were there. She sat on an upturned milk crate for a few minutes and listened to them, but soon enough, both she and Fenrir were restless.

"I'll see you later," she told the three boys. "I'm going to take Fenrir over to the beach for a while, let him do some running."

She could tell that Jacob wanted to go with her, but with Quil pulling his attention back to the car, he couldn't. She left her truck at Jacob's and walked the block to the beach. She let Fenrir off of his leash to run while she sat on some overturned driftwood log.

She sat there alone for a couple of minutes before she felt Paul approaching. He sat down next to her, and she inadvertently moved closer to him so that their legs were touching. She sighed as the chill was replaced by heat and relaxed, leaning onto him more fully. Fenrir joined them almost immediately, and Bella watched with fascination at the interaction between the two. Fenrir stopped briefly at her, but it was Paul that he sat in front of. Bella watched as the waves crashed against the shore while Paul watched her. They didn't talk, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. If anything, it was calming especially after being around so many people all day long. In Phoenix, Bella had been able to blend into the crowd. Entire days could pass by during which none of her classmates said a word to her. Here, though, she had everyone's attention and felt eyes on her no matter where she was at school.

Paul pushed himself to his feet after forty-five minutes or so. "I have to go patrol now," he said in way of explanation when Bella made a small noise of disapproval on being separated.

She was surprised to discover how much she didn't want him to leave. When would she see him again? Would he take her to school tomorrow? Would she have to wait until tomorrow afternoon or even the next day to see him? Her heart clenched at the idea. She wasn't sure how she felt about him yet, but she knew that she wanted to be around him if she could. Faced with the dilemma of not knowing when she would see him, she blurted out, "Dinner!" before he could leave.

He looked at her, confusion written on his face, so she continued on. "Would you like to have dinner with me? At my house. Tonight."

He didn't say anything for a minute before nodding, a smile playing on his full lips. "Yeah, sure. What time?"

Bella hesitated. "Um, around six, I guess. Anything you won't eat?"

A large grin spread across his face. "One thing you need to know about werewolves is that there is very little we won't eat, and we can eat a lot," he said before he jogged to the wooded area on the edge of the beach.

When she made it back to Jacob's, he was inside the house with Billy watching TV.

"Good news, Bella, Charlie called and invited us up for dinner. He's going to pick Dad up on his way home from work, but I thought maybe I could go with you when you leave," he told her as she walked through the door.

Her eyes widened. "Oh, well, we should get home then. I invited someone to dinner, too. I hope Charlie doesn't mind."

Billy smiled at hearing the news, but Jacob didn't look happy at all. "Who? That guy you were with on the beach?"

"Hmm?" Bella answered distractedly. "Oh Paul? Yeah. I asked him if he wanted to come."

She was mentally going through the food she had in the house, so she missed the angry look on his face. She thought she had all of the ingredients for beef stroganoff, but she wasn't sure how much to make. She wondered how much Paul would actually eat. He said a lot, but how much was a lot?

She said a hasty goodbye to Billy and went with Jacob out to the truck. They were a little tight for room thanks to Fenrir, but Jacob didn't complain. She called Charlie before they left to tell him what she was making for dinner and that she had invited someone to eat.

He sounded just as surprised as Jacob had. "Who?"

"Paul Lahote. Have you ever met him?"

Charlie let out a strangled noise. "Yeah, yeah, I've had him in my cop car a time or two, Bells. What the hell are you doing with him? You're not dating him, are you?"

"Ch—Dad! No, we're not dating. We're just friends. I'm just trying to be polite. I'll see you in a little while, Dad. I have to stop at Thriftway to get some stuff. I'm making beef stroganoff."

That seemed to please him at least because he didn't give complain anymore although she was sure she hadn't heard the last of it. Jacob didn't say anything at first, but started asking her questions about Paul when they hit the highway back to Forks.

"How do you even know him?"

"Well, I don't really. Not yet at least. That's what I'm trying to do."

"But _why_? And you still haven't said how you met him."

"I didn't know that I needed to explain myself to you, Jacob," she said, coolly. "We met at the beach the other day, though, if you really want to know."

"He's a real troublemaker, you know, not that the tribal elders care. And you saw how he was with Sam Uley the other day He's been suspended a bunch of times and even arrested before, too. He put some guy in the hospital a few months ago, _and_ he missed a couple weeks of school. When he came back, he was all bulked up and following Sam around."

Bella thought about what Paul had told her before. She believed him. She thought he probably was dangerous and probably could hurt her. She just wasn't sure he would. She chose to ignore Jacob's comments. "I'm not asking you to be friends with him or even like him. I just want to get to know him. I would appreciate you trying to at least be polite tonight."

She left Jacob in the truck with Fenrir while she went into the store. After a minute or two of trying to decide how much she needed to make, she got her phone out and dialed Sam.

His voice was cautious when he answered the phone. "Bella? Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just had a question. Um, Paul said that you guys eat a lot, so I was wondering...how much is a lot? I mean, he's coming over for dinner, and I have no idea how much I should make."

Sam laughed, and then she heard him say something to someone else quietly. "My girlfriend says she normally triples the recipe if she's feeding both me and Paul."

Bella nodded even though he couldn't see her and began to do the calculations in her head trying to figure out how much four humans plus one wolf could eat. Probably a lot. "Thanks Sam."

"You're welcome, Bella. Oh, and if you don't have any plans for Saturday, my girlfriend, Emily, and I would love for come over and have dinner with us. It's been sort of a tradition for the three of us to have dinner together at least one night a weekend, and now that you are part of pack, you are welcome as well."

Flushing with pleasure, Bella said she would be there and hung up the phone. It didn't take long for her to gather enough ingredients to triple the recipe along with the makings for a peach cobbler and ice cream.

Jacob's good mood returned by the time they got home. She put Fenrir into his enclosure since the house would soon be filled with people and started making the cobbler first. Bella thought there was something cathartic in cooking. It was the one chore she had never minded before, and she thought she was rather good at it. She moved around the kitchen with an ease that was different than her usual clumsiness. She talked to Jacob about light topics while she cooked: was he looking forward to the school starting back, was he making good progress with his car, etc.

Bella was sautéing the steak strips, mushrooms, and onions when Charlie and Billy came in the house.

"Smells good, Bells. Smells real good."

He went upstairs to change out of his uniform leaving her alone with Billy and Jacob. Billy settled into the living room soon after. It was then that Bella realized she had never let Paul know that he wouldn't be her only guest tonight. She didn't think he would get angry, but it was probably better to warn him anyway especially considering his reaction to seeing Jacob the other day. She pulled out her phone and fired off a text letting him know. His reply of, "K," came within seconds. Jacob caught her smiling at the phone and frowned.

"Still don't get why you had to invite Lahote," he grumbled. "If you're not going out with him like you said."

Bella huffed. "I don't have to be going out with someone to invite them to dinner, do I? I mean, you're here, aren't you, and we're not dating."

"I just don't get why you even want to be around him. I told you earlier how he was, and that doesn't even include what how he treats girls. A different girl each week, and never the same one twice—"

Jacob's diatribe was cut off by Billy's sharp, "Jake, come here."

Bella ignored the way her heart clenched when she thought about the large list of girls Paul had been involved with in the past. Even though she wasn't sure if she wanted to be with him, she definitely didn't like the fact that other girls had been with him.

When Charlie came back down stairs and saw the amount of food she was cooking, his eyes were wide with shock. "Think you made enough, Bells?"

She shrugged. "Well, you never know how much teenage boys will eat. We'll just freeze whatever leftovers there are left."

She was in the middle of pulling two cooking sheets full of yeast rolls out of the oven and putting the cobbler back in it to keep warm when the doorbell rang, so Charlie went to answer the door instead. She knew it was Paul because she felt her body begin to relax.

She wasn't sure what had transpired when Charlie answered the door, but Charlie didn't seem too mad when he led Paul into the kitchen/dining room where Bella was waiting, her eyes never leaving Paul's when he came into view. Charlie muttered something too low for her to hear, but she saw Paul's lips curl into a smile, so it must been something amusing. Paul was wearing the same shirt he was before, but the jeans he was wearing had no grease stains. It was the first time he had been in her house, and Bella liked the way he looked in her kitchen. He didn't say anything, but his eyes were watching her every movement. She wasn't sure what she had intended to do when she made her way over to him, blushing at the heated look in his eyes, but Jacob's entrance put a stop to whatever action she was going to take.

"How much longer, Bells?" He asked, dropping into the seat at the farthest end of the table. Bella had expected Paul to sit at the other end of the table leaving Bella no choice but to sit in the middle, so she was surprised when he chose the seat in the middle.

"It's ready. Would you like something to drink?" She looked into the refrigerator and read out the choices.

"Water."

"Coke."

She made their drinks before ducking into the living room to tell Charlie and Billy that it was ready and ask if they wanted something to drink.

"I'll get ours, don't worry about us."

She wasn't sure what had happened while she was out of the room, but Jacob was glaring at Paul. Paul was glaring at Jacob, too, and she could see that his hands were also trembling. She had to distract him; she wasn't sure how easy it would be for him to lose control and turn into a werewolf, but she didn't want one in the middle of her dining room. Taking a chance, she put a hand on one of his trembling ones and squeezed. A shudder went through his entire body, but his trembling stopped.

"Come on, Paul, I'll get you a plate."

The next few minutes were filled with the making of plates and everyone settling in to eat. She watched, shocked, as Paul put away a ridiculous amount of food. He ate at least five servings of the stroganoff and half-a-dozen rolls.

"Save some for the rest of us, geez!" Jacob muttered.

"What's it to you how much I eat?" Paul was leaning back in his chair, eyeing Jacob with a smirk on his face. "Bella invited me to dinner. It would be bad manners if I didn't show appreciation by eating."

"Oh, yeah, right! Like you know about manners," Jacob snarled. "I've seen how you act around school and the rez, walking around like you own the place."

"Got a problem with me, Black?"

Bella could see things were quickly escalating out of control. Paul wasn't shaking yet, but his hands were clenched into tight fists, and she could see that he was angry.

"Hey," she said, putting a hand on his arm. "Want to come with me to feed Feni? Get a little air? We can have dessert after."

Paul sucked in a harsh breath, threw one more glare Jacob's way, and then followed Bella as she got the raw steak she set aside for Fenrir and went outside. They were barely out of the door when she was pressed against the back of the side of the house. Paul's entire body was pressed against the front of hers covering her completely, and his face was buried in the crook of her neck just like it had been that morning. He took a few deep breaths before stepping back.

"Sorry about that," he muttered.

The rest of the night went well. Paul put away nearly half of the cobbler. Both Paul and Sam had said that werewolves ate a lot, but hearing about it and see it is completely different. Somehow Billy had convinced Charlie to leave her and Paul alone while he took Billy and Jacob home. Charlie did give Paul a hard look before leaving though.

Once Charlie left, Bella was all too aware that they were alone. She busied herself with clearing the dessert plates away and gathering the leftovers to give to Paul. When she turned to hand the container to him, he reached out and cupped her face instead. Bella's eyes fluttered shut as he leaned down and barely pressed against his lips against hers. Bella felt her body ignite at the feeling of his lips against hers, but Paul pulled away. His eyes were darker than she'd ever seen before.

"I should go," he said, finally, taking the container out of her hands and heading to the door. "Thanks for dinner. I'll see you in the morning."

And then he was gone.

Her fingers ghosted over her lips where his had just been. "Yeah," she said to the empty room. "In the morning."

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I hadn't planned the dinner with the Blacks and Paul... it just happened.

Up next: Bella spends more time with Paul and has dinner with Sam and Emily & the return of a certain Cullen.


	5. Chapter Four

I got the idea for this fanfiction by reading a ton of different imprint stories. I realized that most of them were New Moon AU's, and it made me wonder, what if Bella met a wolf and was imprinted on _before_ she ever met Edward Cullen? How would the tale we know play out? Would Bella still be fascinated with Edward? Would he be fascinated with her? How would a relationship with one of the wolves change the dynamic of the Twilight saga. With that in mind, _Eventide_ was born.

Thank you for the alerts and reviews, guys! I love them all.

Disclaimer: Own nothing. I'm just playing in their sandbox. Took some things from both _Twilight_ and _Eclipse_ for this chapter. If you recognize anything, that's why.

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Chapter Four

Things fell into an easy routine over the next couple of days. Either she went to Jacob's house, who still seemed to be angry over her spending time with Paul, or straight home after school and Paul would join her at some point for dinner. Afterward, they would end up watching college basketball with Charlie or sitting on the porch swing in the backyard. Well, Paul would watch basketball while Bella worked on homework. They hadn't kissed since that first time, though, but that was likely because Charlie had made a concerted effort not to leave them alone. He had admitted that Billy talked to him about Paul, singing his praises about how he and Sam Uley were doing such wonderful things for the tribe and how Paul had really cleaned up his act since Sam had begun mentoring him, but he didn't seem to want Bella to date him. Even though he didn't want her to date him, he refused to believe that she wasn't.

"I've seen the way you two look at each other, Bells. I'm not an idiot," he told her.

She didn't think Charlie was an idiot; she just hadn't realized that he noticed the looks they exchanged. It was difficult, she found, to keep her eyes off of him whenever they were in the same place at the same time.

Bella was immensely happy when Saturday morning arrived. Friday had been a long, terrible day. Paul had taken her to school that morning, but he had been called away for the majority of the rest of the day for patrol. If Bella thought her reactions to his absence were bad in the beginning, when she had no idea what they were and why they were happening, they were nothing like how she felt after spending so much time together. Not to mention she had gotten into a fight with Jacob on Thursday afternoon. He had called her a number of times on Friday, but she had been too mad to talk to him.

She wasn't quite sure why Jacob disliked Paul so much. Sure, she knew there were things about him that she didn't know. Maybe he did have a tendency to fight—it certainly fit in with what he had told her himself: " _I was dangerous and volatile_."—And if he had gotten into fights after phasing into a werewolf, he definitely would have been strong enough to do real damage even if he was holding back. But even if Bella didn't know everything about Paul, she was just as sure that Jacob didn't know either. Paul was a senior while Jacob was a freshman, so it wasn't like they shared the same circle of friends. Plus, ever since he became a werewolf six months prior, Paul had spent his almost every waking moment with Sam.

No, she didn't think that whatever problem Jacob had with Paul had anything to do Paul himself, but that didn't mean she had any other idea as to why he was acting the way he had acted on Wednesday or Thursday. Whatever it was, she wished it would stop because it chaffed against her to hear such negative things about the man who was quickly becoming the most important person in her world—although she still wasn't ready to put a definition on what Paul was to her. And it bothered her to fight with Jacob. It wasn't usual for Bella to connect with people, so she wanted to hang on tight to those she did connect with.

Paul's absence, plus the fight with Jacob, as well as the storm that blew in Friday morning and brought with it a torrential rainfalls all equaled up to Bella having a terrible day. On a normal day, she would have headed to La Push. Then, at the very least, she would get some comfort by being on the reservation but with the storm and the fight with Jacob, she had retreated back to her own home after school. Fenrir must have felt her uneasiness as well because he never left her side as she wrapped herself into several blankets and curled up with a book in her bed. She couldn't concentrate much on reading, though, and spent the majority of the afternoon sitting in her old rocking chair and watching the rainfall from her bedroom window. She almost imagined she saw someone watching her from the forest behind her house, but they were gone in the blink of an eye, so she chalked it up to her mind playing tricks on her.

It was still raining when she woke up Saturday morning, but it was a slow steady rain, not the heavy blowing rain of the day before. Charlie had already left to go fishing with Harry Clearwater, so the house was dark and empty; the only sound in the house was the noise of the rain hitting the roof and the windows. Bella spent the morning cleaning the house and doing laundry as well as working on her homework, anything she could do to pass the time and not think about the antsy jittery feeling that felt like it was getting worse as time went on. It's just after noon when she finally gave up and left for La Push, not able to wait for another minute.

She bypassed Jacob's house completely, although she knew he probably had heard the roar of her truck, and followed the directions to Sam and Emily's house she had gotten from Paul the day before. Not that the house was difficult to find, but it was off the beaten track. Paul had also warned her about what to expect when it came to Emily's scars.

The house, well, more of a cabin, really, was picturesque, and Bella wondered how it would look in pictures, how it would look in the snow or in the summer. She wished she had thought to bring her camera or that it wasn't raining so she actually could take some photographs. Even with the thick red scars covering from the entire right hand side of her face and her arm, Bella thought Emily was beautiful. She was nice as well. She welcomed Bella into the house at once with a smile and a hug.

"Us wolf girls have to stick together," she said.

Bella sighed, smiling. She loved the way 'wolf girls' sounded because even though they had not put a label on their relationship, the term definitely applied.

With Sam and Paul patrolling the area, it was just Bella and Emily for most of the afternoon. Bella had never had many friends, but Emily's company was comforting. They didn't do anything terribly exciting, but it was nice. They watched some hokey werewolf movie that was playing on one of movie channels, Emily providing a comedic commentary as the movie played.

"I'm glad Paul found you," she confessed later. It was after the movie finished, and they were getting ready for dinner.

"Me too," Bella admitted quietly. "I'm still not sure about everything. It's a little much all at once, you know, but..." She shrugged with a sigh and thought of Paul. She thought of his dark eyes and his full lips curled into a smile or a smirk. She thought of the way he looked at her, like she might disappear if he looked away for just a moment.

Emily gave her a knowing look. "I know," she said. "It's difficult to reconcile the way the imprint works with how love works in the real world, isn't it? You fall fast and hard, and it's easy to worry about how the outside world will perceive everything."

Bella nodded. "Yeah. I mean, it's only been days, but I feel so lost when we're not together. It feels like it's too fast, but I've never been in love or even had a crush on anyone. I have nothing to compare it to."

Emily smiled and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry. We're the ones who set the pace, Bella. Paul will wait for you. He's not going anywhere, trust me, I know." Her expression turned haunted then for the briefest of moments before her face cleared.

"Dinner?" Bella asked with a nod towards the kitchen.

Emily smiled again though it didn't meet her eyes. "Yes. Let's fix our boys their dinner."

When Paul and Sam came in the door sometime later, Bella managed to hold off on throwing herself in his arms but only just. Instead, she had watched in awe at Emily and Sam's reunion. If she and Paul were anything like Emily and Sam, she could definitely see why Charlie didn't believe her.

Her attention was diverted away from the couple's private scene when Paul wrapped her up in his arms and breathed her scent in deeply. "Bella." She had never heard so much emotion in one word.

Her eyes swept over him when he pulled away. It had been over twenty-four hours since she had laid eyes on him or felt him, and that was definitely far too long.

Dinner was good. She enjoyed spending time with Sam and Emily. She had a feeling this would be a common occurrence now, and she was happy about that. What she wasn't happy about was Sam and Paul exchanging looks across the table, obviously engaged in some silent conversation. Emily was clearing the table and getting ready to pull out the dessert when Sam cleared his throat.

"Carlisle Cullen contacted me last night, Bella. He wanted to let me know that his son was returning to Forks today and would be back in school on Monday."

Bella remembered the look on vampires face the previous week and shivered. She looked at Sam, her expression panicked. "Monday?" she asked weakly. "He's my _Biology partner_. How am I supposed to sit there next to him knowing he may or may not want to kill me?"

Paul moved his chair close to hers so he could put one of his arms around her. He didn't say anything, but Bella could see from the look on his face that he was furious especially with the way he was looking at Sam.

Sam sighed. He looked older then and weary. "We don't have much choice. There are only two of us, and seven of them. If we had more wolves phased... maybe we could force them to leave the area, treaty be damned, but we don't. He's promised that he would keep an eye on him, and he said we could have unfettered access to Forks. It's not much, I know, but it's what we have to work with."

"Don't have a choice?" Paul snarled. "Yeah, right. I bet this would be a different conversation if some leech was after Emily."

"Paul," Sam said in a warning tone. "We've had this conversation already. We're both good fighters, but I don't know if we could take on seven vampires at once. Do you want to take the risk? We have to believe that our ancestors' trust wasn't misplaced. They trusted the Cullens enough to make a treaty with them, and we've never had any issues with them in the two years they have lived in Forks."

"Fine," he spat; his arms vibrating so much that Bella could feel it through her entire body. "But I'll be watching him. If he so much as blinks in her directions, I'll kill him."

With that, Paul stalked out of the house, slamming the door with so much force that it broke. Bella wasn't sure what she should do. Should she go after him? She didn't think he would hurt her, but he had been so angry. After another minute, Bella went outside expecting to see him. Instead, she saw what she assumed to be the remains of his shredded clothing and shoes. She walked off the porch and looked into the trees that lined Sam's property. A low growl to her right drew her attention. Her eyes widened when she took in the large wolf.

"Paul," she breathed. She reached her hand out and approached him slowly. She couldn't decipher his expression, but he did lower himself to the ground and rested his head on his paws. He made an indiscernible noise when her hand touched the top of his head. She ran her fingers through the fur on his head not caring about the falling rain that was soaking her clothes or how cold she felt as long as she was beside him.

She had known that Paul was a werewolf and had had dreams about him, but there was a big difference between knowing and seeing. It was strange, but even though she could see why he was dangerous in this form, she was not scared of him at all. In fact, if anything, she felt safer. Paul let her "pet" him for a few minutes before making an impatient sounding huff before getting up and disappearing back into the woods.

When he walked back out, he was human again and once more wearing a pair of cut-offs. He didn't look mad anymore, but he definitely didn't look happy. "Come on, I bet Sam's having kittens, and you need to get dry and warm. The last thing I want is for you to get sick on top of everything else."

No one mentioned the previous conversation when they went back inside, but the atmosphere was still tense. They stayed long enough for Bella to change into some of Emily's old clothing and get warm with a cut of hot coffee and a rather large werewolf draped on her before leaving.

The drive home was silent, but Bella could see the troubled look on Paul's face. "I'm not going to let that Cullen touch you," he said finally. "I don't care what Sam says, and I definitely don't give a fuck about the treaty."

She did feel safe with Paul, and she knew he would protect her. She just wished he didn't have to. "Maybe I can try to change Biology to something else. I'm not great at math, but I could try Physics."

"Yeah?"

She nodded. "I'll go in early on Monday and speak to the counselor. It was an option when I registered, but I chose Biology. I would feel better if I didn't have to sit right next to him, you know?"

Paul exhaled roughly, but he looked slightly mollified. "Better than nothing, I suppose."

Charlie was still gone when they made it to her house, so Paul came inside with her.

"Do you want to come upstairs?" she asked. "We could watch a movie or something." She paused. "I don't want to be alone."

He gave her a nod and followed her up the stairs to her room. He lingered in the doorway, his eyes spanning the expanse of the room from her bed to her dresser to desk to the large window along the back wall where the blankets were still piled next to the rocking chair.

"It's a little messy." She blushed as she swept a pile of dirty clothes into a laundry hamper. "I was going to straighten up earlier, but I couldn't wait to get to Sam and Emily's house."

"It's nice. Better than my room anyway." He sat down on her bed and took a deep breath. He made a noise that sounded somewhere between a moan and a groan and closed his eyes. "All I can smell is you; your scent is so strong here."

Bella chewed on her lower lip. She sat on the bed next to him. She could feel the heat from his body on her thigh where their legs were pressed together. "Is that a good thing?"

He nodded tightly. He opened his eyes. "For me, yeah. Scent is a powerful thing for a werewolf. I can tell a lot of things about a person by scent alone." He picked her digital camera off of her bedside table where it was charging. "Mind if I look at these? I wondered what kind of pictures you were taking when I saw you in the woods."

"No, I don't mind," she answered with a shrug. "There are other pictures on there, too. From before I moved here."

"Cool."

He moved until he was leaning against the headboard of her bed, pulling her along with him. She watched him as he flipped through the pictures on the camera beginning at the most recently taken, resting her head against his chest and luxuriating in his warmth as he did so. He stopped every so often and asked her about a picture: Fenrir trying to eat a large piece of watermelon rind, her mother and Phil kissing at their wedding, a shot of her feeding a Fenrir a bottle.

"Why were you feeding him and not his mother?"

Bella frowned. "Oh, well, Feni was the runt of the litter. His mother rejected him. He was only ten days old when he chose me. We had to feed him by hand." She sighed. She could still remember how attached Fenrir was to her even then. "I tried to go every day because Sarah said he pined after me when I wasn't there. He would howl when I left when he was a little older. I used to carry him around in a tote-bag when I first brought him home."

"So alike," he murmured, his dark eyes unreadable as he traced the picture on the viewer with one long finger.

She wasn't sure when it happened, but at some point, her eyes had drifted close and she had fallen asleep. She was alone when she woke up in the morning, but she could still feel the heat on her bed from where Paul must have lain. There was a note on her desk telling her that he had gone to run patrol and would be back later in the day.

She ate cold cereal for breakfast and then finished her homework in the living room while Charlie flicked through the television channels.

"Billy and Jake are coming by later to watch the ballgame," he told her after settling on a _CSI: Miami_ marathon.

She really didn't feel like seeing Jacob since she was still mad at him, but there wasn't much she could do, so she just nodded.

"That boy of yours coming by today?"

She wondered if it was worth the annoyance to argue that he wasn't hers yet, but since she could never explain the whole werewolf-imprint situation, it would probably be like beating a dead horse. "Maybe," she hedged. "But maybe not. Jacob doesn't like him, and I would rather not force the two of them together if I can help it."

Charlie chuckled before giving her a pointed look. "Bells, you know why he doesn't like Paul, don't you?"

Bella shook her head. "Um, not really. He doesn't like Sam Uley either. He thinks they're bad news, but I had dinner with him and his fiancé yesterday, and they were both super nice."

Charlie sighed. "Jake's got a crush on you, Bells. Has since you two were little and used to make mud pies together."

"Oh. _Oh!"_ She understood now. "He's jealous of Paul."

Charlie nodded. "Sounds about right."

"But I don't—I don't think of him like that."

"Might be time you told him, then. If he's really your friend, he'll respect that."

Paul arrived around lunchtime on a black motorcycle while Bella was outside feeding Fenrir. She hadn't known that he had a bike, but it fit him, and he certainly looked delightfully dangerous on it. She could just imagine herself riding on the back of it, her body plastered to his, her arms wrapped tightly around him.

"Think your dad will let me take you for a ride?" The cocky grin on his face made his double meaning clear.

Bella rolled her eyes at his antics. It was nice, though, to see Paul not look as angry as he had the day before. "Doubtful. He's seen more than his share of motorcycle accidents during his tenure as Chief of Police." She pursed her lips. "But maybe one day on the rez? With a helmet for both of us," she amended.

"For you, definitely," he allowed.

Bella figured that was as good as she was going to get. "You hungry? I thought maybe we could have some lunch and take Fenrir on a walk. It's been raining for the last couple of days, and I know he's getting antsy."

He shrugged. "Sure."

Both Bella and Charlie had ringside seats for Paul eating lunch. This was only the third time she had witnessed his appetite, and she was still getting used to it. After five grilled cheeses and four bowls of tomato soup, Paul seemed somewhat appeased.

Charlie gave a low whistle. "Shit," he cursed. "One of your legs hollow or something?"

Paul shook his head and patted his stomach. "Nope. Just going through a growth spurt, Chief."

After Bella cleaned up their dishes from lunch, she ran up stairs to grab her camera.

"I thought maybe I could take some pictures today while we're walking Fen," she said at Paul's raised brow. The _of you_ went unsaid.

"And do I get to take some pictures, too?" His teasing tone made Bella blush bright red.

Bella nodded before calling out to her dad as she left the house, "We're taking Fen for a walk, Dad!"

She wasn't sure when or how it had happened, but at some point from the time they left the house to when they got Fenrir out of his enclosure, Paul was holding Bella's small hand in his. They followed a trail through the woods for a while with Bella carrying her camera in her empty hand and Paul holding Fenrir's leash in his. When they came to a fork in the forest, Paul pulled her off trail.

"There's a clearing just up ahead, a little meadow. Want to stop there for a while and let Fen run a bit?"

"Sure."

Bella was impressed when they finally entered the little meadow. It didn't look like much now with it being January, but she bet it would look very nice in a few months when the flowers bloomed. Paul let Fenrir off his leash, reached beneath a fallen tree to a small crevice, and pulled out a blanket.

Bella's brow furrowed in confusion, "Where did you get that from?"

"I hid it here this morning on my way to patrol in case we walked this way."

He lay down on the blanket before pulling her down with him. The day was overcast, but it was a bit warmer than it had been in a few days. Bella wasn't worried about being cold with a toasty warm werewolf beside her. She propped herself on her elbow and studied him. He was resting on his hands behind his head, and his eyes were closed. He wasn't asleep, but he seemed peaceful although she could see the worry etched on his face. He wasn't one to talk much, and when he did, he never offered any information about himself. She wondered why. She could remember the comment he made the night before and how affected he had seemed about Fenrir's mother rejecting him, so she had an idea that maybe his home life wasn't the best. She almost considered asking Billy or Sam but thought better because he might consider that a breach of privacy.

"You're thinking too loud, Little Red. We're supposed to be relaxing." He didn't even open his eyes, but the corner of his lips curled into a small smile.

She chewed on her bottom lip in indecision. She wanted to touch him, but she wasn't sure if he would care. She hesitated once more before reaching her hand out and tracing one of his high, sharp check bones before moving to the other side and doing the same thing. She smoothed away the worried pucker on his forehead. She bypassed his lips and trailed her fingers across his jaw and down the curve of his neck. She was about to trace the contours in his collarbone, but instead found her a large warm hand stopping hers.

"You're playing with fire, Little Red."

A flutter of pain crossed her face, and there was an ache in her chest. "You don't want me to touch you?" she asked, unable to keep a slight tremble out of her voice at the end.

In a flash, Bella was on her back with Paul hovering on top of her. The pupils of his dark eyes were dilated. When he spoke, she could feel his hot breath on her face. "Oh, I definitely _want_ you to touch me... once you've made a decision. Once you decide to be mine."

She shivered at the intensity of his voice. She almost hesitated, but hadn't she already made this decision? What did it matter if some people didn't understand how fast she had fallen for him? The truth was it didn't. The only thing that matter was how she and Paul felt. Bella surged upwards and pressed her lips against his, throwing her hands around his neck and pulling him closer to her, one of her hands playing in the soft hair at the back of his neck. She felt rather than heard a noise rumble deep in his chest before he deepened the kiss. She gasped, breathless, when they parted, but Paul wasn't finished.

"Tell me that you're mine," he demanded, pressing close to her again. He trailed kisses across her jaw and down her neck stopping only to suck at one of her pulse points.

"Yours," she sighed as she pulled him up to kiss her once more.

When they finally parted sometime later after it became clear that an impromptu rain shower was there to stay, Paul's smile was beatific. There was still a lot they needed to know about one another, but they had plenty of time. Just knowing that she was his and he was hers was enough for now.

It was pouring by the time they reached the house; their hands clasped together, both of them drenched from head to toe. The digital camera had been shoved in her bag where it was likely wet at as well. Thankfully, it was a Bella-proof camera, which meant waterproof among other things. Paul waited for her to put Fenrir back into his enclosure before he pulled her towards him for one last kiss.

"I have to go," he told her against her neck. "I'll be back later, though. Keep your window unlocked."

She stayed outside in the rain until the black motorcycle was completely out of sight.

"Can't you and that boy of yours stay out of the woods?" Charlie asked her as she tried to sneak past the living room where Charlie, Billy, and Jacob were staring at the game.

She turned to him like a deer caught in the headlights. She fought off a blush, as suddenly three sets of eyes were taking in her wet, bedraggled appearance, complete with swollen lips and twigs in her hair. She could only hope that Paul hadn't left any marks behind for her father to see. "Um, we took Fenrir on a walk. He's been cooped up the last couple of days. We didn't expect to get caught in the rainstorm."

"He not staying for dinner?" Charlie asked, he seemed to be deriving some parental pleasure from making her squirm.

Bella shook her head, her eyes flitting over to Billy before settling on Charlie. "He had to go. He had some tribal business to take care of."

Charlie finally nodded and turned back to the game. She had one foot on the stair when he said, "Oh, and Bella? If I find out you've so much as sat on that bike without wearing a helmet and protective gear, you'll be grounded until your centennial. That clear?"

"Yeah, crystal," she mumbled.

She heard the two men chuckle as she fled upstairs to take a shower.

She stared into the mirror after pulling off her drenched clothes, taking in her appearance. Her lips were swollen and red, and there were two marks on her neck: a small one beneath her jaw that she hadn't even noticed and then a larger one at her pulse point. The girl in the mirror did not look like the Bella Swan who moved here. This girl was different, older. In love with a werewolf.

Bella was in the middle of blow-drying her hair when someone knocked on her bedroom door. It could only be Charlie or Jacob, and she was hoping for the former rather than the latter.

"It's open," she called as she brushed her hair out, rearranging it so that it covered up the marks on her neck.

The door opened slightly, and Jacob stuck his head in. "Can I talk to you?"

Thinking about what her father revealed to her earlier that afternoon, she nodded. "Yeah, come on."

She watched him from where she was sitting on her bed. He shuffled in nervously sitting down finally at her desk. She waited for him to talk.

"'m sorry," he muttered.

She sighed and gave him a small smile. "Jacob, look, I get that you don't like Paul. I even get that you don't like Sam. Maybe they are part of some Boy Scout gang or something. Whatever. I'm not asking you to like him. I'm not even asking you to be friends with him or hang out with him."

"No, but you're going to, right?" His eyes were narrowed and his voice was slightly bitter.

"Yeah, I am, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends just like we have been. I want to be your friend. I never had very many friends back in Arizona, you know, so it's nice to have some here. But I'm not going to fight with you about this again. If my spending time with Paul means you don't want to be my friend, then I'll accept that. I won't agree with it because I think we could be good friends—best friends even—but I'll accept it."

He looked horrified. "I never said I didn't want to be your friend."

"Good," she said and nodded as if that had answered everything. She felt terrible about keeping everything from Jacob, but the secret had to be kept. "Let's go see what our old men are up to, and maybe see about getting something to eat."

As if on cue, Jacob's stomach rumbled.

The rest of the day went by smoothly. Jacob seemed to shake whatever funk he had been in before, and while he wasn't a cheerful as he would normally be, he was definitely in a better mood. They ate pizza and hot wings for dinner in the living room while they watched the after game show and talked about the game itself. Bella wasn't sure why you had to watch the pre-game show, the game, and the after game show, but Billy and Charlie seemed to be in it.

She fell asleep before Paul came back, but she knew the moment he did because he pulled her against his chest, wrapped her in his arms, and surrounded her with his heat. She was surprised to see he was still there when she woke up, but she assumed Charlie had already left for work. It took a bit of work because Paul was still asleep, but she managed to extricate herself from his grip. She didn't get out of the bed, though. She just watched him as he slept and listened to the small snuffling noises he made. His lips were parted slightly, and it was all she could do to not lean over and press her lips against his. Instead, she gathered her clothes for the day and ducked into the bathroom to get dressed and brush her teeth. She ran a brush through her hair as she went back into the bedroom.

Paul was no longer asleep. He was peering out her bedroom window, but she could see the muscles in his back were tense. She wondered if he saw something. She was trying not to think about Cullen returning to school today.

"You hungry?" she asked him. "We have some time until we have to go."

He pulled himself away from the window reluctantly and gave her a strained smile. "Always. I'm never not going to be hungry. Trust me."

She cooked an entire pack of bacon and an entire pack of sausage plus a dozen eggs. She ate a little of each and left the rest for him. He managed to eat everything plus drink two glasses of orange juice and a cup of coffee in the time it took her to eat her small breakfast.

Amused, she laughed. "I'm going to have to start buying more food if you're going to keep eating here."

With a mouth full of food, Paul nodded. "Yeah, probably," he said after he swallowed.

They finished eating, and Bella quickly cleaned up the kitchen. Finally, there was nothing else to do but leave for school. Paul's hands were gripped tightly on the steering wheel, and she could see how his jaw was clenched. It bothered her to see him so mad and worried.

"Hey," she said as they got close to the school. She put a comforting hand on his thigh. "Everything's going to be fine, okay? Maybe he won't even do anything. The doctor said they would keep an eye on him, right? And Sam said nothing had ever happened in the two years since they moved or before with your great-grandparents."

Paul nodded, his entire body tense. "Yeah, well, what does Sam know?"

Bella sighed. "I don't know, but I do know that you wouldn't let something happen to me. You said you would be watching and that is enough for me."

Paul had barely thrown the truck into park before his eyes were darting across the parking lot, and tremors were rolling through his body. He was about to lose it in the middle of the parking lot if she didn't do something.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and slid over to the driver's side of the truck without him even noticing. He did notice, however, when she threw one of her legs over his, climbed into his lap and pressed her lips against his. He returned her kiss with vigor, deepening it as he rubbed his hands down her back and settled them on her hips. He pressed several open mouthed kisses down her neck before resting his forehead against hers. Bella went to move off of him, but Paul's hands tightened on her hips. He buried his face in the crook of her neck.

"Paul," she sighed. "I have to go, or I'll be late. Want to meet me here during lunch? I've been basically hiding in my truck to stay away from the cafeteria."

He nodded against her neck. "If he so much as twitches in your direction..."

"I won't even see him until after lunch, okay? Plus, I have a feeling that I'm so covered in eau de werewolf he won't come near me."

He let out a small chuckle, but his eyes were pained. "I'm sorry," he said when he finally pulled away. "Every fiber in my being wants me to do nothing more than to take you as far as I can from here—you can't understand—the instinct to protect you above everyone is so strong, and here I am about to send you into the place where I know for a fact there are five different leeches."

"You're doing everything you can, though. Now, I'm going to go to class, and you're going to get all wolfy and keep an eye on everyone."

Bella moved off of him, grabbed her school bag, and got out of the truck just in time to hear the warning bell. She pressed one more kiss to his lips before jogging to her first classroom. She slid into her seat just as the final bell sounded.

She tried to pay attention to her classes, but her mind was all over the place thinking about what would happen during Biology. On a normal day, school would drag by, but today, it seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye. One minute she was heading to her first class, and the next, it was time for Biology.

She had spent the first part of the lunch hour trying to convince Mrs. Cope to allow her to switch to Physics unsuccessfully. It was offered during another period and would require her entire schedule to be juggled. The second part was spent sharing her lunch with Paul and trying to act like she wasn't afraid. She wasn't sure whether Paul bought it, but she almost believed it herself. She didn't want to worry him at any rate, so she squared her shoulders and put a smile on her face. Her smile wasn't completely faked. It had started snowing sometime that morning when she was in class. She had never seen snow before in real life. It was different than how it seemed on television. She had expected small unique snowflakes, but what she got was completely different. She was not amused by her classmates who had taken to throwing snowballs around between classes, but she was fairly safe from that tucked away in her truck with her own personal furnace.

"I wonder how you would fair in a snowball fight," she asked as they watched a group of students playing in the snow.

"Considering I run a little hotter than the average guy, probably not too good; although, maybe my speed and dexterity might be enough to override my body temperature. Why? You want a snowball fight, Little Red?"

She shook her head quickly. "Definitely not."

And she definitely did not want to be covered in snow, but there was a certain beauty to it, and she thought about how the trees in the forest would look covered in white.

"If it's still snowing after school, we should take Fenrir to play in it. He's never seen snow before either."

Paul nodded distractedly. "I'll need to check in with Sam at some point, but I think we can manage that."

Making plans made Bella feel better. "Then, maybe some hot chocolate and cookies? I haven't baked cookies in a while. Do you have a favorite kind? I could make chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin or peanut butter?"

"How about all of them?" He grinned. "You've seen how much I eat."

She sighed. "I'll have to stop at the store after school and get more ingredients then."

She thought she had succeeded in relaxing Paul somewhat, but all of that evaporated when she had to leave for Biology class. She was standing next to her truck wrapped in Paul's warm embrace with the snow swirling and falling around them landing in her hair and on her coat, and he was no closer to letting her go than he had been when they first climbed out of the truck five minutes ago. She allowed him to pull her into one more long, searing kiss before she pulled herself out of his embrace completely, missing his warmth almost immediately.

"Remember what I told you," he said once more as she walked away.

She let out a sigh of relief when she arrived in Biology to find her table empty as usual. At least she would be able to get herself settled before seeing him. She pulled out her materials for class and arranged them how she had for the last few days, when she had occupied the table alone. The classroom was full of conversations, mostly people talking enthusiastically about the snow. Bella ignored them all and started on a shopping list thinking about what she had at home and what she would need to get. She was trying to decide if she would put walnuts or pecans in the chocolate chip cookies—she didn't know if Paul a preference for either nut— when a quiet, musical voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Hello."

She looked up from her list to find Edward Cullen already sitting in his seat, as far from her as he could actually get, and looking at her expectedly. She tried to ignore the thumping of her heart as she recalled the last time he had occupied that seat. She took in a deep breath and finally responded with a curt, "Hello."

"My name is Edward Cullen," he said. "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."

She cocked her head to the side and considered the Cullen, _vampireleechbloodsucker_ , in front of her. Should she be friendly? Should she act like she didn't know that he was a vampire and that he may or may not have wanted to kill her just the week before? She decided that he must know already that she was aware of his nature, and even if he didn't know, she had no intention of acting like she didn't. The Cullens might pretend to be human, but she knew he was anything but.

"I know who you are," she replied coolly and turned her attention back to her shopping list effectively ending the conversation.

Thankfully Mr. Banner began classes then and saved her from further conversation. Unfortunately, for Bella, the beginning of class meant that she would have to interact with him further. She listened as Mr. Banner gave the instructions for the lab and passed out the boxes of slides. At least identifying the stage of mitosis wouldn't be difficult, as she had already done this particular lab in Arizona.

Eager to be finished, she took a slide from the box and pulled the microscope towards her. She quickly snapped the slide into place and adjusted the objective to 40X.

"It's prophase," she said after studying it for a moment. She pushed the microscope towards him in case he wanted to see it for himself.

He did though looking only for the briefest of moments before murmuring, "Prophase," as well and writing it onto the worksheet that Mr. Banner had passed out.

They completed the rest of the lab in a similar fashion, finishing the entire thing in less than ten minutes, which pleased Bella immensely. She was less pleased with Mr. Banner, who had assumed that Cullen had done most of the work. He had at least set Mr. Banner straight, but this did not put him into her good books by any means. Still, she was at least able to see that he had no plans on draining her dry during class, so she was able to calm somewhat down. She was glad to see that Sam was right and that Paul had been overreacting. Of course none of that meant that she wasn't unnerved by his presence.

Determined to keep a handle on her emotion, she turned once more to her grocery list. Luck was not on her side because Cullen seemed intent on continuing their conversation.

"I apologize for my behavior last week. I wasn't feeling well, and I was inadvertently rude to you."

Bella scoffed inwardly. Rude? Well, she supposed that was a word for it. "Apology accepted," she replied without even looking up. She had already written down what she needed for cookies, so she tried to plan out their meals for the week. She wondered what his favorite food was. She wanted something warm and hearty tonight. Stew maybe? It would be nice to have a slow cooker for times like these, but she wasn't sure she could find one big enough to feed Paul.

"How do you like Forks so far?" Cullen asked. He was either oblivious to the fact that she had no desire to talk to him, or he was ignoring it.

"I prefer La Push."

"Have I done something to offend you?" he pressed.

She looked up to study his face, then. He wore a look of bewildered surprise as if he couldn't even fathom how he would have offended someone. She wasn't sure if he was being sincere or not. She finally sighed and glanced around the room. The buzz of conversation hung over the classroom giving them at least some modicum of privacy as no one was paying them any attention.

She leaned over to him slightly and responded, lowering her voice so that no one could overhear. "I'm sure that you are a nice, ah, person, but all things considered, I think it would better if we didn't talk more than necessary."

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

He looked so confused that she was almost convinced of the validity of his words, but surely he could smell Paul on her? Surely the doctor had told him about their conversation?

She sighed. "Given what you are and what I am," along with Paul, but she ignored that for the moment, "wouldn't you agree that its best to interact only as lab partners?" She gave him a pointed look, hoping he would catch on.

Thankfully, he appeared to do so as she watched his face shut off, moving from the look of bewildered surprise to practiced indifference, only the clenching of his jaw giving him away. When he spoke again, his words were clip and his voice

"If that's what you prefer."

She nodded. "It is."

This time when the bell rang, it was Bella who left the room first never seeing the contemplative look on Edward Cullen's face and how he followed her flight from the room with his eyes.

* * *

Up next: More Paul/Bella interaction. Maybe some fun in the snow.. Maybe the accident in the school parking lot. It's canon, but I haven't figured out how I would handle it. Keep it the same? Switch Paul for Edward? Ignore it completely? I haven't decided. Feel free to leave any ideas you have in a review.


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